This week I am sharing my recipe for Oven Baked Halibut with a Mull of Kintyre Cheddar and Parsley Crust, Roasted Leeks and Caviar Velouté.

As with many of my dishes, do not feel that you need to cook all of the elements, pick and choose as you wish.

The one element that is a really handy trick to have up your sleeve is the Mull of Kintyre Cheddar and herb crust. This is so adaptable. You can use whatever herbs you fancy and the cheddar adds a real richness and punchiness. The beauty of this cheese is that they do the full range from mature to vintage so you can choose the strength depending on your preference.

The crust works amazingly with most fish but is equally as good with meat, try it with pork or lamb and you won’t be disappointed.

It freezes well so it can always be on standby and used to liven up any cut of meat or fish, keep this in mind if you have any leftover from this recipe.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Mull of Kintyre Cheddar and parsley crust:

125g butter

1/2 medium onion, finely diced

250g panko breadcrumbs

100g parsley, roughly chopped

150g Mull of Kintyre Cheddar, grated

2 egg yolks

For the potatoes:

8 baby potatoes, scrubbed

For the leeks:

1 leek, cut into rounds

Salt

5g butter

Drizzle of rapeseed oil

For the caviar velouté:

1 shallot, finely diced

10g butter

150ml white wine

150ml good quality fish stock

150ml double cream

Generous spoon of caviar

For the halibut:

4 x 160g halibut fillet, skin off and deboned

Drizzle of rapeseed oil

Salt

Method

To make the Mull of Kintyre Cheddar and parsley crust:

- Melt the butter in a pan

- Add the onion and sweat gently for 2-3 minutes till softened but with no colour

- Add half of the breadcrumbs and half the parsley

- Cook for a further 2 minutes

- Meanwhile in a large bowl add the rest of the breadcrumbs and parsley

- Pour the onion mix over this and mix well

- Pour the mixture into a high speed blender

- Add the cheese and egg yolks and blend until smooth and well incorporated

- Roll out the mixture between 2 sheets of greaseproof  paper till 1/4cm thick and refrigerate

For the potatoes:

- Poach the potatoes  in salted boiling water for 17-18 minutes or until tender

- Keep them warm

For the leeks:

- Heat up a non-stick pan

- Salt the leeks

- Place the leeks in the dry pan until they just start to colour

- Add the butter and rapeseed oil

- Turn the leeks over and remove from the heat

- The leeks will finish cooking in the residual heat in the pan

For the caviar velouté:

- Gently sweat the shallot in the butter till softened but with no colour

- Add the white wine and reduce until it has almost completely evaporated

- Add the fish stock and reduce by half

- Add the cream and reduce by 1/3

To cook the fish:

- Preheat the oven to 185C

- Place the halibut on a non-stick tray

- Drizzle with the rapeseed oil and a little salt

- Bake in the oven for 7 minutes

- Meanwhile, cut out 4 rectangles from the herb crust that are the approximate size of the halibut fillets

- Place the cut herb crust on top of each halibut fillet

- Bake for a further 3 minutes

To assemble:

- Slice the potatoes while they are still hot and place in the centre of  each plate

- Scatter around the leeks

- Add the caviar to the velouté reserving a little for garnish

- Spoon the velouté around the plate

- Top each plate with the halibut and a small spoon of caviar

I serve this dish with wild Scottish herbs and flowers, these are optional but add a real vibrancy to the plate.