John Dory with mushrooms and orange

Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 4 John Dory, weighing about 450g gutted and heads removed
  • 150ml dry white wine
  • Salt
  • Black pepper
  • 250ml double cream
  • Chopped parsley
  • 2 oranges
  • 50g shallots, chopped
  • 225g mushrooms, sliced

1 Remove the zest from one of the oranges with a zester, being careful to avoid the white pith. Drop the zest into a pan of boiling water, bring back to the boil, cook for two minutes and drain. Peel both the oranges with a knife, removing the pith, divide into segments and skin each segment. Reserve half the segments, the ones that are most perfect, to decorate the finished fish.

2 Melt the butter in a pan and sweat the shallots for five minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further five minutes, until tender, then increase the heat and let the juices boil almost completely away. Add salt and pepper to taste, the orange zest and half the orange sections. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Leave to cool.

3 Using a sharp knife, enlarge each of the "pockets" of the fish (taking care not to cut right through), so that they can each take a quarter of the stuffing. Divide and pack in the stuffing, pressing it down firmly. Put the fish in a flameproof, ovenproof dish with the wine. Season and bring to the boil, then cover with a lid or foil and bake in a preheated oven, at 140 Celsius/275 Fahrenheit/gas mark 1, for 20-30 minutes, until just cooked.

4 Transfer the fish on to a warmed serving dish and lift off the upper layer of skin. Keep the fish warm. Put the cooking dish over direct heat and pour in the cream. Stir and reduce until thick. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Pour around the fish, decorate with the parsley and reserved orange sections, and serve.