Seafood Made Simple: These home baked beans go well with any piece of fish

Irish Examiner

17-05-2025

Netflix series Chef's Table is back with a new season. This time around, the focus is honouring four 'Legends'. There's Alice Waters, who pioneered the farm-to-table movement in America. Her restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California opened in 1971 and is still going today.
Then there's Thomas Keller, chef owner of the famous The French Laundry in Napa Valley, where he has held three Michelin stars for 18 years. The king of fine dining in America, he has another three Michelin-star restaurant, Per Se, in New York city.
José Andrés, born in Spain, has a whopping 40 restaurants in America. In 2010, he founded the non-profit organisation Central Food Kitchen, providing meals across the world in response to humanitarian, climate and community crises. He's been included twice in Time magazine's most influential people.
I was delighted to see Jamie Oliver included in this series. Oftentimes, he doesn't get the respect I feel he deserves within the industry. He's the chef on this list that's influenced me the most. So much so, that I'm not sure what I'd be doing now if his TV shows like Naked Chef hadn't sparked my interest in food all those years ago.
His episode charts his rise to fame at 24, how he made cooking cool and uncomplicated, without the use of technical language, authored 35 books with dyslexia, his hugely impactful work navigating the reform of school dinners in the UK and his contribution to the sugar tax legislation.
This weekend's recipe, gurnard with home baked beans, is all about that kind of simplicity. These beans would work as a side dish with any piece of fish, so use whatever is available to you. They are great with chunky fillets of hake and pollock. Gurnard is a fabulous fish. Lesser known and underutilised it's native to our waters.
Gurnard with Home Baked Beans
recipe by:Aishling Moore
These beans would work as a side dish with any piece of fish, so use whatever is available to you.
Servings
4
Preparation Time 
15 mins
Cooking Time 
2 hours 10 mins
Total Time 
2 hours 25 mins
Course 
Main
Ingredients For the baked beans
250g dried cannellini beans (or 2 x 235g of cannellini beans drained)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small bulb garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
For the tomato sauce
3 tbsp golden rapeseed oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
300ml passata
1 tbsp honey
25g butter
Salt
Black pepper
For the gurnard
4 x large fillets of gurnard (or 8 small)
2 tbsp golden rapeseed oil
Fine sea salt
1 lemon
Method
Soak the beans overnight (or at least 10 hours before you plan on cooking) in 1 litre of boiling water in a large bowl.
Strain the soaked beans and rinse well under cool running water in a colander.
Grease a large pot or Dutch oven with the olive oil and place the rinsed beans, garlic bulb, herbs and bay leaf inside.
Top up with 1.1 litres of boiling water and season generously with sea salt and place a tight- fitting lid on.
Bake in a 175°C preheated oven for 1 hour 45 minutes.
Check after one hour, as cooking time can differ depending on the beans.
Remove from the oven, discard the stalks of rosemary and garlic.
To make the sauce, heat a medium heavy-based pot on medium heat.
Add the garlic and cook in the rapeseed oil for 2 minutes until golden.
Add the smoked paprika, cayenne and oregano and cook for a further minute before adding the passata.
Add the honey, season with salt and black pepper and reduce the heat to medium-low.
Cook for 8-10 minutes to reduce the sauce.
Add the drained beans and warm through. Finish with butter and taste to correct seasoning.
Keep warm while cooking the gurnard.
For the fish: Preheat oven to 175°C.
Grease a large baking tray with rapeseed oil. Place the fillets of gurnard on the greased tray and brush each fillet generously with rapeseed oil.
Season with fine sea salt and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until the fish is cooked through and flakes when gently pressed.
Finish with lemon juice and serve.
Fish tales
Gurnard is one of the trickier species to fillet, so I'd recommend relying on your local fishmonger to tackle this fish.
You'll find bones running down the centre of the fillet of gurnard. I recommend asking your fishmonger to remove these also.
Make sure you use a baking tray large enough to have space between the fillets of fish to allow the heat to circulate evenly.
If you're going to the trouble of soaking and baking the beans in the oven, you'll have some leftovers. Add to salads, soups and stews or make a cannellini bean hummus.
Refrigerate leftovers for up to three days.
These beans are also great for breakfast.
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