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Roasted Turbot with Fennel

Cooking fish on the bone gives the very best results in both taste and texture. This recipe has wonderful heady flavours from Provence, and makes a magnificent dish to serve to your friends.

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Why it works: Fennel and turbot work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and 8 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook2 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Warm the 300ml olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat with the garlic, bay leaves, sage, dried fennel, dried orange strips, star anise, cardamom, fennel seeds, the small piece of orange and the thyme sprigs. Keep it barely simmering for 60 minutes, then cool and strain.

  3. Trim the fresh fennel and cut it into wedges. Toss with the 2 tbsp olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper, and the thyme sprig, then roast on a tray for 30 minutes until tender.

  4. Finely dice the shallot. Melt half the butter in a pan, soften the shallot, then add the diced tomato and dry white wine. Simmer until reduced by about half, about 10 minutes.

  5. Whisk the remaining butter into the wine reduction off the heat. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the chives and chervil.

  6. Season the turbot on both sides with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Add it to the tray with the fennel for the last 15 minutes, or until the thickest part reaches 145°F (63°C) and the flesh is opaque and flakes.

  7. Spoon the sauce onto warm plates, add the roasted fennel and turbot, and drizzle with a little of the infused oil before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Fennel + turbottop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Fennel + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together337 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Fennel + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Orange + cardamomtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fennel, thyme, orange, cardamom, pepper, olive, sage):

  1. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  2. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  3. Basilbetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fennel, thyme, orange, cardamom, pepper, olive, sage. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).