Roast Turbot Crown with Champagne & Chive Butter Sauce

⏱ 75 min · Serves 4

A whole turbot crown, roasted on the bone until the flesh slips away in glossy pearl-white flakes, served with a silky champagne butter sauce sharpened with lemon and green with chives. This is the sort of centrepiece that silences a table — big-occasion cooking, but the method is calmer than it looks.

Per serving: 812 kcal · 52.0g protein · 24.0g carbs · 56.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1 turbot crown, about 1.6–1.8kg (head and tail removed, fins trimmed — ask your fishmonger)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 40g butter, softened
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Flaky sea salt and white pepper
• FOR THE CHAMPAGNE SAUCE:
• 1 banana shallot, very finely diced
• 30g cold butter, plus 150g cold butter cubed
• 250ml champagne or dry sparkling wine
• 150ml fish stock
• 100ml double cream
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp finely snipped chives
• TO SERVE:
• 400g Jersey Royals or new potatoes, boiled
• 200g samphire or fine green beans

Method

1. Take the turbot out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking and pat it very dry. Heat the oven to 200C fan / 220C conventional.
2. Rub the crown all over with olive oil, then smear the softened butter over the top (dark) skin. Season generously with flaky salt and white pepper. Sit it dark-side up in a large roasting tray with the thyme, bay and lemon halves tucked alongside.
3. Roast for 25–30 minutes, basting once halfway. It is done when a skewer slides through the thickest part by the backbone with no resistance and the flesh lifts cleanly from the bone. Rest, loosely covered, for 10 minutes while you finish the sauce.
4. For the sauce, melt the 30g butter in a wide pan and sweat the shallot gently for 4–5 minutes until soft but not coloured.
5. Pour in the champagne and bubble hard until reduced to about 3 tablespoons of syrupy liquid. Add the fish stock and reduce by half again.
6. Add the cream, bring to a simmer, then drop the heat low. Whisk in the cold cubed butter a few pieces at a time until you have a glossy, pourable sauce — never let it boil.
7. Strain through a fine sieve if you want it silk-smooth (or leave the shallots in for texture). Season with salt, white pepper and the lemon juice, then stir in the chives at the last moment.
8. Bring the whole crown to the table on a warm platter. Run a spoon down the backbone and lift off the four fillets, top and bottom. Serve with the potatoes, samphire and plenty of champagne sauce spooned over.