Grilled Coley Fillet with Herb Baked New Potatoes and Mushrooms

Coley is one of the sustainable types of fish which is perfect for eating instead of the desperately endangered Atlantic cod or haddock. It is a white, meaty fish, just like cod or haddock, and where it is cooked properly, coley can be every bit as tasty and enjoyable as its distant cousins. Coley is known by a number of different names just in the UK alone, such as coalfish, saithe or cuddlings. In the US, coley is commonly linked with pollack and the two are known collectively as pollock.

This grilled coley is one of the quickest and easiest ways of cooking fillets. It is a domestic, overhead grill that is used, rather than an outdoor grill. The potato dish made to accompany the coley is actually my own adaptation of an outdoor grilling recipe devised by a friend of mine on Hub Pages, who writes under the name, "Just Ask Susan." I would strongly recommend you take a look at Susan's original, spicy version of this potato recipe, especially where you are lucky enough to live in a climate where outdoor grilling is a regular option. You can find the details by clicking here, after you have read this coley recipe.

Ingredients per Serving

1 fresh coley fillet (skin on - very important)
1/2 oz butter
3 medium sized new potatoes
2 closed cup mushrooms
1/2 medium onion
Large clove of garlic
Generous pinch of dried thyme
Generous pinch of dried rosemary
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and white pepper

Put your oven on to preheat to 400F/200C. Wash the potatoes and add them to a pot of cold water. Put the pot on to a high heat and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes. Take the pot to the sink and run cold water in to it for a minute or so to rapidly cool the potatoes. Peeling the potatoes is optional. Normally I wouldn't but in this instance, the skins were particularly blemished so I simply rubbed them off with the ball of my thumb. Chop the potatoes in to approximately 1" chunks.

Pour the olive oil in to a glass or stone mixing bowl. Add the herbs and season with salt and white pepper. Mix well. Mixing the seasoning with the oil before adding the remaining ingredients allows the seasoning to be distributed much more evenly and effectively.

Roughly chop the onion half, cut the mushrooms in half and peel and finely slice the garlic. Add the onion, potatoes, mushrooms and garlic to the bowl. Instead of stirring the ingredients, hold the bowl at a slight angle with one hand and fold the vegetables through the oil with a wooden spoon, similar to how you would fold flour in to wet ingredients. This method will be less likely to damage the potatoes or mushrooms.

Lay a large sheet of aluminium foil on a baking tray, shiny side uppermost. Carefully pour the vegetable mix in to the centre and wrap in to a loose but sealed tent. Bake in the oven for forty-five minutes.

If, like me, you have a combination oven and grill, it is clearly not practical to use both at the same time. In this instance, this is not a problem. When the potatoes are ready, turn off the oven and remove the tray to a heatproof board. Being very careful of escaping steam, unwrap the foil enough to test the potatoes are done with a skewer or the point of a sharp knife. Rewrap and leave like this while you grill the coley fillet. The vegetables will easily remain hot during this time.

Take about a third of your half ounce of butter and use it to lightly grease a non-stick grilling tray. Lay the coley fillet on the greased area, skin side down. Season the coley with salt and white pepper. Break the remainder of the butter in to small pieces and distribute evenly over the top of the fish. Grill under a moderately hot grill for six or seven minutes until the coley just starts to separate in to flakes and you can clearly see it is cooked.

Use a fish turner to carefully transfer the coley fillet to your serving plate. Add the potato mixture alongside and if you do wish to add further garnish, try some sliced cherry tomatoes, or freshly chopped parsley.

Pan Fried Coley Fillet with Spicy Salsa and New Potatoes

Coley, coalfish, saithe - all are different names for the same fish, a member of the cod family. Coley does not enjoy the same culinary reputation as its cousin, the cod, which is a shame, as it can be an excellent eating fish, provided it is cooked appropriately. It also retails at a fraction of the price of cod and is in much more plentiful supply than the seriously endangered cod.

The salsa for this recipe should be prepared first.

Salsa Ingredients (Serves Two)

2 medium tomatoes
3 spring/salad onions (scallions)
1 clove of garlic
1 small red chilli pepper
2 large basil leaves
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Juice of quarter of a lemon
Salt and pepper

Method

The tomatoes should be halved and a teaspoon used to scoop out and discard the seeds and watery core. They should then be moderately finely chopped and added to a mixing bowl. The garlic clove should be peeled and finely chopped, while the seeds and membrane should be removed from the chilli before it too is finely chopped. (The salsa should not be so hot as to overpower the fish.) The spring onions should be finely sliced and the basil leaves finely torn before both are added. The lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil should be poured in, the salsa stirred well and seasoned to taste. It should then be covered with clingfilm and refrigerated until required.

When the salsa is in the fridge, the potatoes should be washed but not peeled and added to a pan of cold, slightly salted water. They should then be put on a high heat to reach a boil, before the heat is reduced to let them simmer for thirty minutes.

This is approximately a half pound fillet of coley. It is important that you purchase it with the skin still on. It will take five or six minutes only to pan fry, so it should start being prepared for the pan around ten minutes before the potatoes are ready.

An ounce of butter should be melted in a non-stick pan. The coley fillet should then be patted on the skin side only in some flour seasoned with salt and pepper, before being placed in to what should be the slightly browning butter, skin side down. The flesh side should then be seasoned with salt. It should be fried on a fairly high heat for three or four minutes until it can be seen from the side to have cooked most of the way through. The heat should then be reduced and the fillet turned on to the flesh side for the final couple of minutes.

The potatoes should be drained and returned to the pot with a little butter. The coley fillet should be added to the plate skin side up. Some salsa should be spooned on the side and the potatoes also presented. Whether the coley fillet is served with the skin on, or it is carefully removed with a knife beforehand, is entirely a matter of personal preference.