Chorizo-and-olive butter hake parcels

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“This is a clever way to perfectly cook fish without drying it out. The flavoursome home-made butter, made with chorizo sarta and Kalamata olives, also makes a sauce at the end. It's delicious drizzled over potatoes.” – Clem Pedro

Ingredients

For the chorizo-and-olive butter:
200 g butter, softened
150 g Woolworths chorizo sarta, roughly chopped
150 g Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, grated
4 T Italian parsley roughly chopped
1 lemon, zested (reserve the lemon to squeeze over the fish)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the fish parcels:
4 fresh hake fillets
2 T olive oil
mashed or steamed potatoes, for serving

Cooking Instructions

1. To make the chorizo butter, place the butter, chorizo, olives, garlic, parsley and lemon zest in a bowl. Season and mix to combine. Place the butter on a sheet of clingwrap, roll into a cylinder and freeze to firm up, about 20 minutes.

2. Halve each hake fillet to make a middle cut and tail cut. Cut the butter into thick rounds and place on the middle cut, flesh side facing up. Top with the tail cut with the skin facing up. Set aside the remaining butter for the sauce. Use butcher’s twine to secure the fish parcels.

3. Place a cast-iron or heavy-based pan on a braai grid over medium coals. Brush the pan with olive oil, then add the fish. Cook for about 4 minutes, or until the skin is golden and crisp. Turn over and add a few more slices of the butter to the pan. Move the fish through the melted butter, coating it well, and cook for a further 4–5 minutes, finishing with a squeeze of lemon and extra parsley.

4. Remove the twine and serve the fish with mashed or steamed potatoes tossed with fresh herbs and garlic.

Cook's note: Use any firm white fish for this recipe. Kingklip is a good alternative to hake, and you can also use frozen hake.

Find more fish recipes here.

Photograph: Jan Ras
Production: Abigail Donnelly and Clement Pedro
Food assistants: Josh Van Zyl, Ellah Maepa and Lerato Maepa