A warming, spiced recipe, this is White Fish in Tomato Sauce. Inspired by a North African dish known as Chraime, it is essentially poached white fish in a spiced tomato sauce. Laced with cumin, paprika and preserved lemon, the flavours are warming and lifting and work perfectly with tender fish, which gently flakes apart once cooked in this method.
How to make it
The recipe starts with a simple tomato sauce. Garlic, tomato puree and spices, cooked in a generous glug of olive oil. Once cooked out, the purée should turn a beautiful rust colour, add the tins of tomatoes and a bit of water too. Simmer gently. Once the tomato sauce is where you want it, add the preserved lemon. Nestle into the tomato sauce and poach the fish for 5-10 minutes, which is a rather large window when talking of something as delicate as fish but it will totally depend on the thickness of your fish. You want it just cooked, flaking apart. Serve immediately. Serve with warm pitta and couscous, drizzling with tahini and fresh coriander all over.
How to make the important tahini drizzle
The tahini sauce brings a nutty element to the dish, its smooth nature offsets the spiced tomato sauce so don’t skip it. To make the tahini sauce, grate the garlic into a bowl and cover with the lemon juice. This takes the raw bite out of the garlic so that it doesn’t totally overpower the rest of the dish.. Pour in the tahini and whisk together – it will begin to stiffen – then slowly pour in the ice-cold water, a tablespoon at a time, whisking until you have a smooth, drizzly sauce. You want it to be quite runny.
Other ways to spin white fish in tomato sauce
This dish is North African but there are so many variations you could make of this dish with the same base concept. You could:
- Make it Spanish by adding in some smoked paprika, some olives, and some chorizo even, into the sauce. When the olive oil is sizzling the garlic, throw in a few anchovies. They will melt into nothing but bring a salty backdrop to the sauce.
- Make it Mediterranean by adding capers, olives, red peppers, and more cherry tomatoes into the sauce as well as some torn fresh parsley or lemon zest.
- Make it Italian – adding in basil, a glug of wine and some capers. Once you have the tomato sauce to your liking, poaching the fish in the tomato sauce will absorb those flavours. A drizzle of very good quality extra virgin olive oil would be a perfect finisher too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can prep the sauce ahead of time but poach the fish when ready to eat it, which only takes 5-10 minutes.
Yes you could take the same flavours but turn this dish more into a shakshuka. Make the sauce and when you would add the fish, gently crack a few eggs into wells in the pan. Cover with a lid and cook until the whites are set but the yolks still runny.
Preserved lemon is a core ingredient here, they are lemons that have been pickled in a brine of water, lemon juice and salt. They add both saltiness and tanginess. If you haven’t used preserved lemon before, it almost has a mouth-numbing element to it. I wouldn’t recommend leaving it out and most big supermarkets will stock them, but you will still have a delicious dish if you do.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Weeknight Salmon & Chickpea Curry (veggie)
One Pan Poached Fish With Brothy Tomato Beans
Thai Fish Cakes with Lime and Coriander
Roasted Salmon Side With Garlicky Tomatoes
Hot Honey Salmon Bowls with Coriander Sauce
PrintWhite Fish in Tomato Sauce
This recipe for white fish in tomato sauce is by Julius Roberts. It's quick, easy and a bit different to what you might often make in your kitchen.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 brown onion, finely sliced
- 5 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
- 2 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin (ideally toast 1 tbsp of seeds and then grind in a pestle and mortar)
- a pinch of chilli flakes (or a few whole dried chillies)
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes
- 1–2 preserved lemons, depending on size
- 4 fillets or slices of white fish (hake, pollack, halibut, bass, etc.)
- chopped fresh coriander (or parsley), for serving
- for the tahini sauce
- 1 clove of garlic
- ½ lemon
- 80g quality tahini
- 5–6 tablespoon ice-cold water
- a little ground cumin
Instructions
In a wide pan, warm the olive oil, then add the onion with a pinch of salt and fry until soft. Add the garlic and spices and fry for a minute or two until fragrant, then add the tomato purée. Cook out the purée for a couple of minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. Pour in the tinned tomatoes, then rinse out each tin with a splash of water and pour that in too. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon and simmer for about 10–15 minutes to thicken the sauce.
Quarter and deseed the preserved lemons, then chop them into small pieces before adding to the sauce. I would recommend adding the lemon a tablespoon at a time, tasting as you go to find the right balance. I say this because they come in many sizes and strengths, so you really need to taste and get the amount right for you.
To make the tahini sauce, grate the garlic into a bowl, squeeze over the juice of half a lemon, mix and leave for 5 minutes. The acidity of the lemon will relax the heat of the garlic. Pour in the tahini and whisk together – it will begin to stiffen – then slowly pour in the ice-cold water, a tablespoon at a time, whisking as you go until you have a smooth, drizzly sauce. You want it to be quite runny.
Season with a pinch of salt and a dash of cumin. Taste and adjust with a little more salt and/or lemon as need be. Season the fish and nestle it into the tomato sauce.
Cook for about 5–10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets, until just cooked. Serve immediately, with warm pitta and couscous, and finish with lots of tahini sauce and fresh coriander
Notes
Extracted from The Farm Table by Julius Roberts (Ebury Press, £27) Photography by Elena Heatherwick
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This is a recipe by chef Julius Roberts, who started his career in food as a chef for a year at Noble Rot in London. Whilst doing this tough but rewarding work, Julius quickly realised that his way of life was unsustainable in the long term. He made the big move out of London and what started as a smallholding with just 4 pigs has grown to a farm with over 40 goats and over 100 ewes. His debut cookbook The Farm Table was published in 2023, and it contains so many gorgeous recipes.
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