Smoky Red Mullet and White Bean Stew

INGREDIENTS
½ onion, chopped

30g (¼ cup) finely chopped carrot

30 g (¼ cup) finely chopped celery

3 garlic cloves, 2 roughly chopped and 1 thinly sliced

720 g (4 cups) drained canned cannellini beans (3 x 400-g/14-oz cans)

125 ml (½ cup) white wine

1 tablespoon tomato purée/paste

about 1 litre/quart light chicken stock

2 dried bay leaves

½ tablespoon smoked paprika

a handful of live clams, cleaned

a handful of king prawns/jumbo shrimp

a small handful of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley

freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon

8 small red mullet fillets (or 4 large)

1 tablespoon plain/all-purpose flour

a small knob/pat of butter

8 scallops, shelled

olive oil, for cooking and drizzling

bread, to serve

METHOD
Fry the onion, carrot and celery in a little olive oil for a few minutes, then add the 2 cloves of roughly chopped garlic and continue cooking. Add one-third of the cannellini beans, followed by the white wine and tomato purée.

Reduce the wine until almost evaporated, and then add half the stock. Loosely cover the pan and cook on a medium-high heat for 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and either mash by hand or give it a blitz with a hand-held blender. Pass the mixture through a sieve/strainer and set aside.

In a clean pan, drizzle a little olive oil and very gently fry the clove of thinly sliced garlic, ensuring you don’t brown it, then add the bay leaves, smoked paprika and strained paste, and return to the heat.

Add the remaining cannellini beans and enough of the stock to reach a creamy consistency. Simmer this uncovered for 20 minutes until the beans are soft, adding more stock if it starts becoming too thick.

5 minutes before the end, throw in the clams and prawns and cook until the prawns are pink and the clams have opened. Add the chopped parsley and give it a good squeeze of lemon juice.

When you are ready to serve, dust the skin side of the red mullet fillets in a little flour and fry in a little olive oil in a separate pan for a few minutes, before turning over for another minute. Remove from the pan and give the pan a wipe with a paper towel. Add the butter and sear the scallops for 30 seconds on each side, depending on how big they are, then spoon some of the butter over them and remove.

Arrange the white bean and shellfish mixture on a serving plate and place the scallops amongst the beans. Top with the red mullet, flesh-side down and serve warm with plenty of decent bread.