Pan Fried Mullet Fillet with Bruschetta

Mullet fillets are shallow pan fried and served on a bed of iceberg lettuce with bruschetta

Mullet is not a fish I had ever previously eaten. I have never even caught a mullet, though to be fair have never actually tried. I have seen them many times swimming in shoals past the end of piers or in harbours but up until last night, that had been the extent of my experience. This fish is therefore one I was really surprised to see in my local supermarket and given that they can be caught in West of Scotland waters, I thought I would buy a fillet, give it a try and share with you my honest opinion. Sadly, that opinion is a considerably less than favourable one - but let's look first at how I cooked it, in case you do catch a mullet and want to give this a go.

Mullet fillet is patted on its skin side only in seasoned flour

Ingredients per Person

1 fresh mullet fillet
1 tbsp plain (all purpose) flour
Salt and pepper
! tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 oz butter
3 slices from a French bread stick
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
2 large iceberg lettuce leaves
Chopped parsley to garnish

Mullet fillet is fried in a combination of butter and olive oil

Directions

Put the vegetable oil and butter in to a small frying pan and gently heat. Scatter the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Pat the mullet in the flour on its skin side only and lay it skin side down in the hot pan. Cook on a fairly high heat until you can see it is cooked most of the way through. Turn the heat down to minimum and flip the fish on to its flesh side. It will complete cooking in about another minute.

French stick is sliced for making bruschetta

Toast the bread on both sides until golden. Drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil and season with black pepper and sea salt.

Bread slices are lightly toasted and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil before being seasoned with salt and pepper

Shred the lettuce and lay it on your plate with the bruschetta alongside. Lay the mullet on top of the lettuce and garnish with the fresh parsley.

Shredded iceberg lettuce and bruschetta are plated

When I first cooked this fish and peeled off the skin, I was immediately reminded of pike (which I love to eat!) due to its texture and particularly the amount of bones. It almost seemed that there was very little flesh on the profusion of bones! This immediately caused me to decide that this may be a fish best simply gutted and baked whole, so that the flesh can simply and easily be slid off the bones.

Having tasted the fish, I changed my mind about the cooking method. It tasted almost earthy and not what I would call pleasant at all. If I absolutely had to eat it again, I would be virtually certain to use that frequent fall back method for less tasty types of fish and make fishcakes.

How would I personally sum up mullet? Probably by borrowing those immortal words of Crocodile Dundee, "You can eat it - but it tastes like ****..."

Mullet is laid skin side up on lettuce bed