Pan-Fried Leatherjacket with Tapenade, Tomato & Basil

Name: Pan-Fried Leatherjacket with Tapenade, Tomato & Basil
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Australian
Ingredients: 6 x 350-450 g leatherjacket trunks, skin off and gutted; 18 large basil leaves; plain flour, for dusting; 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped; 1 stem flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked; garfish; john dory; mirror dory; snapper; whiting; freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 50 g salted baby capers, soaked in cold water for 1 hour, then drained and dried; 12 large vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely diced; vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 6 spring onions (scallions), cut into fine rings; 250 g pitted Niçoise or Ligurian olives; salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 100 ml extra virgin olive oil

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Sydney Seafood School Cookbook

By Roberta Muir

Published 2012

About

Fish on the bone always has more flavour than fillets, but some people don’t like looking at a fish head while they’re eating. Leatherjackets are a great option as they’re most commonly sold as ‘trunks’ (heads removed, gutted and skinned but still on the bone). They don’t have many small bones to worry about either, and the moist flesh flakes easily away from the large bones. Ocean jacket is one of the most common species of leatherjacket in Australia. Mark Best tops the fish with tapenade,