Whole Baked Brill with Nutty Brown Butter, Capers and Lemon

⏱ 40 min · Serves 2

A whole brill roasted on the bone until the flesh slips away in silky, sweet flakes, then anointed with foaming hazelnut-brown butter, salty capers and a sharp squeeze of lemon. It looks like a restaurant centrepiece but takes barely half an hour — the fish does all the work.

Per serving: 690 kcal · 58.0g protein · 3.0g carbs · 49.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1 whole brill, 1–1.2kg, trimmed and gutted (ask your fishmonger to remove the dark skin if you prefer)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, half sliced, half for juice
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 100ml dry white wine
• 100g unsalted butter, cold, diced
• 3 tbsp capers in brine, drained and rinsed
• 1 small banana shallot, very finely diced
• 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp chives, finely snipped
• New potatoes and buttered spinach, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Take the brill out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking so it isn't fridge-cold.
2. Pat the fish thoroughly dry. Slash the thickest part of the flesh twice on each side, down to the bone, so it cooks evenly.
3. Oil a large roasting tray, scatter with the lemon slices, thyme and bay, and lay the brill on top, dark side up. Rub with the remaining oil and season generously with flaky salt and pepper.
4. Pour the white wine into the tray around (not over) the fish. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until the flesh at the thickest point lifts cleanly off the backbone when nudged with a knife tip.
5. Lift the fish onto a warm serving platter, tent loosely with foil and rest for 5 minutes. Strain a couple of tablespoons of the tray juices into a small jug.
6. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat. Swirl as it foams and, after 3–4 minutes, the milk solids will turn hazelnut-brown and smell nutty. Immediately take off the heat.
7. Add the shallot and capers to the hot butter — they will sizzle. Stir in the reserved tray juices and a good squeeze of lemon, then the parsley and chives. Taste and season.
8. Spoon the brown butter over and around the brill. Serve at the table, lifting the fillets off the bone with a spoon, with new potatoes and buttered spinach.