Fish with preserved lemons and green olives

My preserved lemons were good to go and the Fish box had delivered some skate so I thought I'd bring the two together to make a recipe that my Mum had recommended from Claudia Rodens' Arabeque cookbook. I think I'm going to treat myself to this book as I love love loved this recipe. It was such a hit of flavour: The saltiness of the olives with the zing from the preserved lemons and the aromatic coriander made the dish fresh and light.

Claudia' recipe is for skate wings but you could use any white fish. This was the first time I've had skate and I was a bit sceptical as I had no idea what they would taste like and I'd heard they had lots of bones, but I really enjoyed them and would definitely have them again. They were very "meaty" and they just had one wing of bone which the fish easily fell off.

Fish with preserved lemons and olives

2-4tbsp oil

4 small skate wings

juice of 1 lemon

peel of 1 preserved lemon chopped

8-12 large green olives, stoned and chopped

2 tbsp chopped parsley or coriander

serve with 1 lemon cut into quarters

salt

I only used 2 pieces of fish but the same quantity of topping as I like to load things with flavour. I also wasn't sure whether the skin from a whole preserved lemon would be overwhelming so I used just over half, it definitely could have taken more and next time I'll be bold and use the whole thing.

When you're preparing your preserved lemon take it out of the jar, scrape off the flesh and put this to one side as you won't be using it and chop the the peel into small cubes - it does feel counterintuitive to bin the lemon flesh and use the peel!

I used less oil than Claudia recommended as I had less fish: heat the oil in the pan and put the skate wings in. Cook over a low heat for 4 minutes, turn over and add the lemon juice, cook for another 4 minutes or until the flesh starts to come off the bones. I can't live without my probe and used it to check that the fish had reached the right internal temperature. Add the olives, preserved lemon and herbs (I used flat leaf parsley) and serve with a lemon wedge.

I served mine with one of my absolute favourites from Moro, their broad bean and dill pilaf. I'd really recommend you give this a go.