Grilled Flounder and Tomatoes
Nick Fisher
LATIN NAME
Platichthys flesus
ALSO KNOWN AS
Fluke
SEASONALITY
Avoid February–May when spawning
HABITAT
European coastal waters
MCS RATING
2–4
REC MINIMUM SIZE
25cm
MORE RECIPES
Plaice with rosemary, caper and anchovy butter; Megrim with crab and chives; Lemon sole poached in butter with thyme; Dover sole with seaweed butter
SOURCING
According to the accepted flatfish hierarchy: turbot is king, brill heir to the throne and Dover sole a young prince. Plaice and lemon sole follow, then come megrim and witch, with dab trailing in their wake. And flounder brings up the rear.
It’s yet another example of an undervalued fine fish. Like so much of our seafood, flounders receive more accolades in the rest of Europe than here. The Belgians have them smoked and eat them with lemon and soured cream, while the Galician Spanish serve them filleted and fried or steamed in a light creamy saffron sauce.
The best way to get your hands on a fat, fresh flounder… is with your foot. Flounder ‘tramping’ is a recognised method of harvesting. Every August, Dumfriesshire is home to the Palnackie Flounder Tramping Championships, in which contestants paddle warily out across the muddy estuary, feeling for flounders with their toes. Once located, the fish is held down on the estuary bed with one foot and grabbed by the hand.
Tramping aside, flounder can be a surprisingly easy fish to catch, especially on wide, silty river estuaries. In the whole gamut of flatfish, the flounder has the most robust immunity to fresh water. Even though they can live in deep undersea trenches miles offshore, they’ll also happily survive in shallow fresh water. In Holland, flounders are even fattened up in freshwater pools before they’re deemed chubby enough to eat.
Flounders look like shrunken, washed-out versions of plaice. They too have fawn skin and orange spots but they’re noticeably smaller in stature, and their orange splodges are far fewer and of a much less eye-piercingly Floridian hue.
Because they are by-catch, rather than a targeted species, flounders are rarely seen on Britain’s fish counters, which is a great pity: their numbers are healthy, yet many of those caught are discarded. This is an underutilised species you can eat without spoiling your eco-credentials. Should you be so lucky as to spot them for sale, do buy them.
Flounder fillets, coated in egg and breadcrumbs or even just dusted in seasoned flour, then shallow-fried in searing hot oil, are delicious in a freshly baked bap with a slather of tartare sauce, mayonnaise or chive-loaded soured cream.
My favourite way to cook flounder is grilled whole and drizzled with garlic butter and parsley. And, since they cost on average half as much as plaice, I often enjoy double helpings of this foot-stamping steal of a fish.
This is a super-simple way to make the most of fresh flounder. Try it with fillets of other flatfish too, such as megrim, plaice or sole – or with whole dab. Serves 2
300–400g ripe, flavoursome tomatoes (ideally a mix of varieties, including cherry tomatoes)
3 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil, plus a little extra for the fish
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp ground cumin, plus a little extra for the fish
2 large flounder (about 500g each), filleted (i.e. 8 good-sized fillets)
Sea salt and black pepper
Preheat the grill to high.
Halve cherry tomatoes and cut larger varieties into 1cm slices. Lay the tomatoes out in a single layer on a large, shallow baking tray. Trickle over the oil, then scatter over the garlic and cumin and season generously with salt and pepper.
Place the tomatoes under the grill and cook for 10–12 minutes until tender, juicy and lightly blistered, turning them carefully halfway through.
Meanwhile, rub the flounder fillets with a little oil and season with salt and pepper and a pinch of cumin.
Carefully nestle the fish, skin side up, among the grilled tomatoes. Return to the grill and cook for a further 4–5 minutes or until the fish is just cooked through. Serve the fish with the tomatoes and all their lovely juices, with some salad and good bread on the side.