John Dory recipes: Our resident chef columnist Mark Hix has been waiting for BBQ weather so he could crack out this rhyming fish dish | City A.M.
To continue with the theme of previous weeks, I’m going to tell you what I cooked at the weekend. It’s usually foraged from someone’s garden or caught on a boat with my daughter, but last weekend’s inspiration came from my neighbour, Paddy.
He was gifted some John Dory by a mutual fisherman friend of ours and I saw it as a great opportunity to crack out my recently-acquired Ox Grill. It’s a fantastic piece of British-made kit that’s built to last out of ship steel, with a classic retro look.
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I’ve always loved the idea of tandoori John Dory, partly because it rhymes, but also because I love cooking Indian food. The shape and texture of John Dory lends itself to being marinaded and cooked quickly on the intense heat of a tandoor or wood-fired pizza oven or even a barbecue.
I travelled to Ridley Road Market to find some long, flat Turkish kebab skewers, popped the John Dory on so they would sit nicely on the edges of the Ox Grill and turned them over until cooked through. Here’s the recipe so you can throw some fish on the barbie this weekend. It’ll be a scorcher.
Tandoori John Dory (serves 4)
INGREDIENTS
1 large John Dory weighing about 1kg, or two smaller ones
FOR THE MARINADE
3tbsp natural yoghurt
2tsp ground cumin
The juice of ½ a lemon
2tsp garam masala
½tsp ground turmeric
1tsp chilli powder
1tbsp finely grated root ginger
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely grated or crushed
METHOD
Blend all of the ingredients for the marinade and season to taste
Score the John Dory 4 or 5 times on both sides, lay in a non-reactive tray, mix well with the marinade, cover and store in the fridge overnight
Pre-heat the wood fired oven or tandoor or barbecue
Skewer the John Dory and cook over the coals without the grill rack or in the wood fired oven resting the ends of the skewers on bricks or similar.
The John Dory will only take 6-7 minutes in a wood fired oven and maybe 5 minutes each side over the barbecue
Serve whole with a cucumber, coriander and mint salad, the perfect clean accompaniment to this dish