Rick says: "‘A la plancha’ means cooked on a thick steel griddle. Any large frying pan makes a good substitute. I found this dish in Galicia, northern Spain, where they cook a lot of fish this way. The method is perfect for small Cornish haddock, but fillets of larger fish are easier to get hold of so I’ve based the recipe around those."
4 x 100–125g skin-on fillets haddock
Salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp Slow-cooked garlic
Slow-Cooked Garlic - Makes 1 jar
125g garlic cloves, roughly chopped
100ml olive oil
¼ tsp salt
Slow-Cooked Garlic
It is a lot easier to control the caramelization of garlic when it is cooked in a large quantity in lots of olive oil.
Put the garlic and olive oil into a small pan and cook over a very gentle heat for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then, and mashing it up with a potato masher after about 15 minutes, until the garlic is soft and sweet.
Season with the salt, leave to cool, then spoon into a container with a lid and refrigerate.
Keeps for 2–3 weeks.
Haddock a la plancha with caramelized garlic
Season the fish fillets on both sides with a little salt. Heat a large frying pan over a high heat.
Add the olive oil and as soon as it is shimmering hot, add the fish, flesh-side down first, and cook for 2 minutes, until richly golden.
Turn the fish over and cook for 1 more minute.
Carefully remove the fish from the pan, remove the pan from the heat and leave it to cool very slightly. If you add the garlic to the pan straight away it will burn.
Return the pan to a medium heat, add the slow-cooked garlic and cook until it is just golden brown.
Return the fish fillets to the pan, flesh-side down, and shake around briefly to encourage the garlic to stick to the fish.
Remove from the pan once more and serve flesh-side up with any remaining garlic from the pan spooned over.
