Anthony Yotis grew up with seafood. His father Konstantinos Yotis ran a seafood stall for more than 40 years at Footscray wholesale market in Melbourne, and Anthony continues that tradition at his aptly named Carlton North store The Fishmonger’s Son, which he runs with his wife Laura di Florio Yotis. There, they sell seasonal seafood, as well as accoutrements to go with it: pasta, olive oils, sauces and rice.
Now, these years of experience have been funnelled into the Yotis’s new cookbook: The Fishmonger’s Son. It’s a handy compendium of recipes and tips both for seafood-cooking novices and those who have a knack for handling the fruits of the sea but need some inspiration. Alongside recipes for pickled octopus, crispy-skinned snapper bao, pasta vongole and barramundi curry parcels, there’s a “seafood guide” outlining the qualities of various fish and other seafood, and the flavours that best complement them, as well as tips for shucking oysters and peeling prawns. It’s basically an instruction manual for using seafood in the kitchen.
This fish burger is a great place to start. “This fish burger was created as [a] lockdown comfort meal – born in a time when we were juggling a newborn baby, a toddler and a busy shop,” write Yotis and di Florio Yotis. “And while we were so thankful to be able to keep working, we didn’t have much steam left at the end of those days to get too creative with dinner. This quick meal has remained a fave to this day.”
For this recipe, you’ll want mid- to tail-end pieces of rockling that are the same thickness – these will cook more evenly. You can also sub in other fish, such as snapper or swordfish.
The Fishmonger’s Son’s fish burger
Makes 2 burgers
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
2 rockling fillets (300–400g total), skin off
4 butter lettuce leaves
125ml (½ cup) olive oil
2 soft burger or brioche buns
Japanese mayonnaise
2 gherkin pickles, sliced lengthways
4 finely sliced red onion rounds
Seasoned flour
200g plain flour
⅔ tsp sea salt
⅔ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Method
Mix together seasoned flour ingredients in a deep bowl. Coat the rockling fillets and set them aside on some baking paper.
Rinse and pat dry the lettuce leaves and gather the rest of the ingredients together so you are ready to assemble everything when it’s time.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry the rockling for 2–3 minutes on each side, until the colour is golden and the fish has just cooked through.
Meanwhile, lightly toast the burger buns.
Time to assemble: spread the mayo on the top and bottom halves of the buns, top with a couple of lettuce leaves, the rockling, slices of gherkin and red onion. Place the bun lids on top and enjoy.
The Fishmonger’s Son by Anthony Yotis and Laura di Florio Yotis, published by Plum, RRP $44.99, photography by Mark Roper.
