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John Dory with butternut squash soup

Atul Kochhar from Market Kitchen
Atul Kochhar creates a cinnamon-spiked soup with delicately-marinated white fish and chilli-flecked spinach

John Dory with butternut squash soup

Method

1. For the marinade: mix together the ginger garlic paste, spices, lemon juice and salt. Coat the fish and put in a small casserole dish. Refrigerate for 10-20 minutes.

2. For the butternut squash soup: heat the oil in a small saucepan, fry the ginger and chilli for a minute and add onions. Continue cooking for a further 3 minutes before adding the butternut squash. Cook for 3-4 minutes more.

3. Stir in the sugar, a little salt and pepper and the white wine; reduce the wine by half. Stir in the ground coriander and garam masala. Add the stock and cream and cook for a further 30 minutes.

4. Cool slightly and blend the soup with a hand blender until smooth. Stir in the cinnamon and pass though a fine sieve. Keep warm until required.

5. For the John Dory: preheat the oven to 220C/ gas 7.

6. Heat the oil in a pan, dust the fish with gram flour and fry skin-side down. Cook the fish for 3-4 minutes or until the skin is crisp. Flip the fish to the other side and fry for 1 minute. Finish in the hot oven for 2-4 minutes, depending on the size of the fillets.

7. For the greens: heat the oil in a pan and fry the garlic until light brown. Add the chilli flakes, spinach leaves and spices. Sauté lightly until leaves wilt. Season.

7. Put the greens in the middle of a deep plate, pour the soup around the greens and arrange the fish on top of the greens. Garnish with coriander or chervil leaves and crushed pink peppercorns.

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Serves: 4

Prep: 10 min
Cook: 1 hr

Ingredients

For the marinade

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp ajwain seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp Garam masala
1 tsp lemon juice
pinch sea salt

For the John Dory

4 small fillets John Dory
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp gram flour
chervil leaves or Coriander, for garnish

For the butternut squash soup

3 tbsp vegetable or Olive oil
1 tbsp grated ginger root
1 small green chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 onion, chopped
500g Butternut squash, deseeded and roughly chopped
40g Sugar
50ml dry White wine
pinch Garam masala
pinch ground coriander
400ml vegetable or chicken stock
30ml single cream, (optional)
1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon
lightly crushed pink peppercorns, to garnish

For the greens

2 tsp vegetable or Olive oil
1 tsp finely chopped Garlic
1/4 tsp crushed black pepper or red chilli flakes
200g baby spinach or lettuce leaves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp coriander powder