RED MULLET WITH SWEET AND SOUR SHREDDED SALAD

We are in rose-tinted heaven here: the pink glint of the red mullet’s skin flashes like a Barbie-mermaid’s tail against a salad of shredded pawpaw, red chilli pepper, carrot and spring onions, sprinkled pinkly with chopped, raw red-skinned peanuts.

If you can’t get hold of green pawpaw, I wouldn’t worry: most pawpaws are sold so unripe that you can slice them up as they are. Only when they are properly, juicily, coral are they unusable here.

There is something about the spiky, spicy sourness of the lime and fish-sauce dressed salad, and its nutty crunchiness, that makes this intensely refreshing and, if I may say it, unfishily inviting. It’s also a doddle to make, and I can tell you now you will be making it again and again, no question.

2 small red mullet, either whole or filleted, with the skin left on

for the salad:

4 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

juice of 1 lime

1 teaspoon caster sugar

50g raw peanuts in their red husks, chopped

50g (or a quarter) green pawpaw, finely julienned

2 small carrots, peeled and finely julienned

2 spring onions, finely julienned

small bunch fresh coriander, chopped

1 long red chilli, deseeded and finely julienned

Slash the fish if they are whole, or lay the fillets on some foil, and either barbecue, or cook the fish in a hot oven at 200°C/gas mark 6 for about 10 minutes. Remove to a serving plate.

Combine all of the ingredients for the salad and scatter and pour it over the cooked fish if they are whole. If you are using fillets, spread a bed of dressing and lay the fillets on top.

Serves 2.