give your pollack a little re-speck

A rather unpopular fish until recently, pollack is a low-fat white fish comparable to cod in its fleshiness. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall insists that we use it more, especially since cod is in such trouble these days. I myself have no qualms with eating more pollack – if only it were more readily available.

Now it appears pollack is beginning to line our shelves with more consistency. At Sainsbury’s this weekend I picked up some fresh pollack for a reasonable price.

The only problem now? How to make the bloody fish interesting! Let’s face it, cod’s not the most exciting fish on the block. It’s a wonder that it became overfished at all, in my opinion.

Luckily, the Moroccans and the Italians come to the rescue, with their harissa and their lovely prosciutto, also called speck, respectively. You know harissa. But speck’s a dry cured thinly-sliced bacon that can be eaten on its own as part of an antipasti, or wrapped around a number of lovely things. One often sees chicken or monkfish wrapped in parma ham or speck, and then pan-fried. The bacon then takes on a lovely crispy savoury consistency but protects its charge from drying out.

So spread a teaspoon of harissa on the pollack and wrap it up in a couple slices of speck (adding only 75 calories to the dish), but don’t pan fry it, grill it. You still get the benefits of the protection, you still get the crispy speck, but the excess fat drips off. The harissa gives the fish some depth, but without overpowering it.

Excellent Saturday night dish: pollack with harissa and speck, tabbouleh, steamed purple sprouting broccoli, glass of rose. The meal (excluding wine) is only about 525 calories (about 150 g pollack, 2 slices of speck, tsp of harissa, a generous portion of tabbouleh, and 150 g broccoli). For dessert, Spanish strawberries. Not at their best but nonetheless a true treat.

Go ahead, indulge yourself. And play that Erasure classic in the background while you cook. It will be in your head for days, weeks after.