AirFryday: Fish au gratin, my dad’s way

It occurs to me often, these days, that my dad had a much bigger influence on me and my love for cooking than I had realised when I was younger. As well as his proper pork pies in the Melton Mowbray style, he loved to make his “fish au gratin” which, in his broad Yorkshire accent, didn’t sound remotely French. More like fisher gra’an, the vowels separated by a glottal stop in the London tradition.

When I was living in England circa 2004 I trekked north to Yorkshire to see my cousins and stopped, en route, at Melton Mowbray, where I went into its legendary pork pie shop and emerged with a lovely, golden pie which I ate in the street. It was perfect, and it was exactly the same as my dad’s, in my memory at least.

In his world, fish au gratin was (and, always for me, still is) fish baked in the oven with a topping of golden fried onions and grated cheese, which meld together under the grill while the cheese melts and turns golden and, depending on the variety of cheese, either molten or crisp, or a bit of both. The Langbaken Williston cheese I used for it the other day melted and then crisped into a delicious crust, which was really good, although my dad’s was always more molten. Either way, it’s a treat.

The technique of gratination in an oven (or today in an air fryer, optionally) is also applied to potato bakes such as Pommes Dauphinois, lasagne from Italy, Greek zucchini bakes, and everyone’s favourite childhood supper, macaroni cheese. And what is a perfect mound of cauliflower cheese, finished under the grill of an oven or air fryer, if not a gratin… and better still if it has a few light breadcrumbs on top to turn perfection even better.

I bought fresh hake while in Gqeberha last weekend and it’s almost like a different fish, when used fresh, than a fillet of frozen hake is. Not that I have a problem with frozen hake, especially if you take it directly from the freezer to the air fryer.

I cooked these fresh hake fillets in the air fryer, but you can pan-fry it first if you prefer, but not all the way through as it needs to continue cooking under an oven grill or in an air fryer. If you own the latter, it would be wiser to do the whole cook in the air fryer.

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 Tbsp butter

Black pepper and salt for the onions

Picked thyme leaves

Olive oil cooking spray

2 x 250 g fresh hake fillets, skin on

200 g grated mature Cheddar cheese or similar

Salt and white pepper to taste

Method

Fry the sliced onion in butter, with some picked thyme leaves and seasoned with back pepper and a little salt, slowly until golden and caramelised. Set aside.

Grate cheese and set aside.

Preheat the air fryer at 200℃ for at least 5 minutes.

Spray the basket and both sides of the fish. Season the fish lightly on both sides with salt and white pepper.

Place skin-side up in the air fryer and cook it for 6 minutes at 200℃.

Turn and spoon the onions on top, then sprinkle grated Cheddar on top, generously.

Cook for another 6 minutes. A simple side of peas simmered in butter with mint, and some good old chips, would be a perfect match. DM

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.