Eddie Hart's John Dory with a fennel, chicory and radish salad

In the summer months we have become very fond of serving delicious fresh and crunchy salads with fish cooked on the plancha. The John Dory (or San Pedro in Spanish) works very well for this. The hot fish with crispy skin combined with the refreshing salad is delicious.

We love the contrast between the two types of radish, but don’t worry if you can’t find the rarer black radish, just the breakfast radishes would do. It is best to slice all the vegetables on a mandolin if you have one as this will yeald perfectly even, wafer thin slices. If you don’t have a mandolin you will have to carefully hand-slice the vegetables yourself.

Serves 4

Ingredients For the Salad 80g black radish 16 breakfast radishes 1 bulb of fennel 4 small heads of red chicory 4 tablespoons tarragon, chopped 8 tablespoons olive oil 4 tablespoons of Moscatel vinegar salt and pepper For the Fish 4 John Dory about 400g each, heads removed but still on the bone 50ml Olive oil salt and pepper

Method

1. On a mandolin, finely slice the radishes and the fennel.
2. Trim the base from the chicory and discard, then separate the leaves.
3. In a heavy bottomed non stick frying pan heat a little olive oil. Sprinkle some Maldon salt into the pan, then add the fish and cook for 5 minutes on each side, seasoning well with salt and pepper and drizzling with a little extra oil if necessary.
4. While the fish is cooking whisk together the olive oil and vinegar in a salad bowl. Then add the radishes, fennel, red chicory and tarragon, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
5. Serve with the John Dory.