All the seafood we should be eating right now – according to Michelin-star chef Nathan Outlaw

Nathan Outlaw is on a “one-man chef mission” to get us all to eat more seafood.

“What people sometimes don’t realise is [that] it is a convenience food,” says the chef, who runs Michelin-star restaurant Outlaw’s Fish Kitchen in Port Isaac, Cornwall. “If you’ve got a good supply of it, it cooks so quickly – three or four minutes – and you can have your meal ready.”

The 48-year-old has seen big changes in the popularity of fish since opening his first restaurant in 2003 – The Black Pig in Rock, which held a Michelin star – before opening his flagship eatery, Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Port Isaac, which held two Michelin stars for 10 years.

“When I first started cooking as a chef, it had been salmon, cod, maybe some tuna steak, there wasn’t really much being eaten,” he says. “Now we’re lucky, people will try anything.

“It’s no different if you’re cooking it at home yourself, it’s about building confidence, I think.”

Outlaw has now released his seventh cookbook, Nathan Outlaw On Fish, which he says is a “personal handbook”, including all his thoughts about seafood since he began building up his own repertoire of dishes on the restaurant scene.

His number-one tip for expert fish cookery is leaving it to the last minute.

“The biggest thing I can say at home to be successful with cooking fish is to make sure, before you cook your fish, you have everything else ready. If you’ve got some potatoes, or a sauce, or salad, get everything ready – even get everybody sat down at the table – before you start cooking your fish. Because once it’s there, it’s ready to be served.”

Outlaw hasn’t included any cod in the book because he “decided to sort of take a stand”, despite the fact he loves it as an ingredient. “It’s just not available in the right way anymore for me to use,” he notes.

“Here in Cornwall, it’s purely on the basis of overfishing and changing the natural habitat, that there isn’t much cod anymore. Therefore the cod all moves much more north – Norway, Iceland – where there are plentiful stocks and they are managed well. So if you were going to buy cod and you wanted to eat it with a clear conscience, you’d buy that.”

So which seafood is sustainable – and delicious – right now?

Gurnard

If you like cod, gurnard is a great alternative, says Outlaw. “Gurnard is an excellent fish because it’s got its own character. It’s got lovely, flaky fillets. It’s got a nice touch of oiliness, but it’s really good meaty fish as well. So it’s a very good all-rounder.

“It’s not super-expensive, and it is quite versatile,” he adds. “It can take spice, it can take a light, simple grilling, you can steam it, and you can even make a soup. I make a wonderful soup using gurnard [topped with gurnard fritters and green olive tapenade]. “Or try it in a curry with pineapple chutney.”

Red mullet

“Red mullet is really, really good at the moment,” he says. “A lot of people think gurnard and red mullet are similar because they’re red, but they’re actually very different in how they taste and how they cook.”

Top a homemade mushroom soup with a piece of spiced pan-fried red mullet, he recommends.

Brill

“Brill is a fantastic alternative to turbot,” Outlaw says, “actually, I prefer brill.”

“A lot of people love turbot and say it’s the ‘King of the Sea’, but for me, brill is a fantastic fish, particularly if you cure it and eat it raw, which is not something you usually associate with a flat fish. It’s got a really lovely texture, and it’s beautiful [when] steamed.

“Personally, I love things raw, or I like them steamed. That’s my two favourite techniques. It shows off the quality and the individual characters of different species.”

Lobster

Soon, “We’ll start getting the first lobsters”, says Outlaw. “A lot of people see lobster [and think] we can’t afford that, but you’d be surprised, because lobsters give you two dishes.”

He suggests using all the shells to make “a wonderful sauce or soup”, and then “obviously the meat, where you can make a lobster cocktail.”

“At the right time of year, lobsters are really well-priced – sometimes they can be as good value as something like seabass.”

Megrim sole

Also known as Cornish sole, Outlaw says megrim sole is “really, really good” and an alternative to lemon sole. “There’s quite a bit around, there’ll be more as we go into May and June, that’s when it starts to kick off.”

Outlaw’s recipes include baked megrim sole on fennel with orange and gochujang butter, and deep-fried megrim sole with a chilli and seed dressing.

Bass

“Bass is great when the season opens,” he says, “The season actually closes in the UK from January to March. So, the first of April it starts, and then you get really good line-caught bass, and I think it’s a beautiful one to try – you might not have tried before.”

“Grey mullet is a really good alternative if you like bass, and it’s a little bit cheaper. That is a lovely meatiness to it that can stand up to big flavours.”

Monkfish

“Monkfish is one of my favourite [types of] fish and I think that’s great for in the summer, for barbecues, because you can marinate it nicely in something, and then that’s really good on a barbecue. People always [say] barbecuing fish is quite difficult. But monkfish, if you’re cooking it on the bone, is very forgiving.

“People worry about it being overcooked – you can’t really overcook it. I mean, you can, but it takes some doing! It’s really meaty, it likes to be helped along with lots of flavour. So don’t be afraid with chilli or spices, it just seems to go so well with the texture.”

He recommends monkfish with a harissa or satay sauce, or peppered rub (like a peppered steak). “Season the whole monkfish tail, and then grill that. And that’s really delicious as well.” Or give it an Asian twist with a sticky sweet and sour sauce.

Hake

Hake may be ‘one of the most fearsome and ugly-looking fish in the sea’, Outlaw writes, but it’s delicious and unique.

“Our hake boats in the UK, especially the Cornish hake boats, are probably some of the most sustainable in the world,” he says. “So that’s a really, really good fish to eat.

“It’s also not a very bony fish, so it’s a good one for people that are a bit worried about things like that. It makes a good cod alternative.”

It’s tasty cooked inside paper with mussels, beer, bacon and leeks.

Oysters

“Oysters, obviously, are a farmed seafood,” he notes, “but they’re farmed in a way which is naturally farmed.”

Culturally, we aren’t used to buying oysters to take home, but Outlaw says there’s nothing to worry about.

“Oysters are a bit of a challenge for people, unless you are used to opening oysters, but there’s nothing wrong with getting a fishmonger to open them for you. If you’re able to consume them straight away [after bringing them home], they’re not going to harm you in any way.”

Steam oysters with a ginger beurre blanc or deep-fry them in a seeded crumb with barbecue sauce.

Tinned fish

“Tinned fish is incredible,” Outlaw says, “what you actually get from the tins, I honestly believe is sometimes better than fresh, because you can sometimes buy fresh fish that’s just been hanging around too long.

“If there is a company buying it in small quantities, in season, respecting it, then preserving it in tins” – that’s what to look for.

He recommends frying anchovies until crispy, making a chilli sauce and serving it with salad. Or putting tinned cuttlefish in ink through risotto rice, which he made the other day – “It was so delicious – it took me 25 minutes”.

Nathan Outlaw On Fish: A Seafood Handbook is published in hardback by Kyle Books, priced £30. Photography by Kate Whitaker. Available April 16.