Fiddling with flavour when cooking fish, especially a white fish such as kingklip, is fraught with the risk of overwhelming its natural charms. But kingklip can take a bit of spice. Once the fish was cooked, fried until just less than done, I felt it needed something more, so sliced a red onion and fried it in the same pan, to take on the spices that had permeated the fish.

Ingredients

Kingklip fillets, as needed, cut from the thick end

6 Tbsp butter

½ tsp ground turmeric

½ tsp dried crushed garlic

¼ tsp white pepper

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

Salt to taste

Green beans

Brown mushrooms

Olive oil

Lemon slices/wedges

Method

Rinse kingklip fillets and pat them thoroughly dry with kitchen paper.

Melt the butter and stir in the turmeric, garlic and white pepper. 

Fry the kingklip fillets in the turmeric butter until slightly underdone. Salt the fish lightly. Transfer to warm plates.

Fry sliced red onion in the turmeric butter after cooking the fish.

Earlier, blanch green beans in boiling water and run them under cold water. Drain. Before serving, toss them in the pan in which you cooked the fish and the onions. I also cooked sliced brown mushrooms in olive oil with a splash of lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over if you like. DM/TGIFood 

Mervyn Gers Ceramics supplies dinnerware for the styling of some TGIFood shoots. For more information, click here.

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