Grilled red mullet is a real treat: its flesh has perfect texture, flaky and flavoursome, the skin is crispy and delicate and it is surprisingly easy to eat when cooked whole, bone-wise.
Red mullet: small but perfectly tasty
Red mullet is small, beautifully coloured fish best enjoyed in early autumn. Perhaps that's why it has that rusty-pink, autumnal hue to its skin.
It has long barbs on its chin (do fish have chins?) which always remind me of an image of ancient Chinese emperors with long, forked goatees.
Red mullet is caught in the south waters of the UK and around the European Atlantic coast all the way to the Mediterranean. A truly seasonal fish, it appears on the British fishmongers' stalls in summer.
It is also known by its French name rouget which I'm fond of as it sounds nothing like the hideous haircut.
Small fish full of bones?
I know a lot of people are put off whole, smaller fish because of bones, and the irrational fear that once they swallow a single bone, it will promptly choke them to death. It is as unreasonable as it is ridiculous, because sardines, herring and sprats have soft and small bones, easily digested. And even mackerel or trout bone won’t kill you, however unpleasant the experience may be.
But anyway, ‘small bony fish’ may well be applicable to sardines and herring but not to red mullet. This one is astonishingly easy to eat even when cooked whole, as the little bones helpfully cling to the main bone with only a scattering along the sides. Nothing that would repel even a staunch fishbone phobe.
Texture to die for
And the little mullet is the flakiest fish in the world. It is therefore hard to overcook, which is the commonest crime when cooking fish.
It is juicy and succulent: I call fish flesh like that slimy in the best possible sense. If it grew bigger, it would probably make the meanest fish and chips.
Fillets or whole fish?
But since it is small, I think that filleting it is a bit of a waste, especially as the bones come out cleanly out of the whole cooked mullet.
Interestingly, it is actually nicer the smaller it is, the overgrown specimen sometimes being on the mushy side.
How to cook red mullet
Thus I wouldn’t attempt to fillet red mullet unless you're a fancy chef creating a posh starter. Grilling works best because the resulting crispy pink skin of the rouget is just divine.
I have never tried it on barbecue and would probably find it tricky as barbecuing fish, especially small like this is a blink of an eye between crispy and charcoaled - but if you’re a BBQ master, you should certainly try.
Seasoning red mullet for the grill
No seasoning bar a little salt is really needed if the fish is spanking fresh but I like a little anchovy butter brushed over that glorious skin to make it even more glorious.
If you can position a rack over a grill tray, lined with foil to limit washing up, place the fish on the rack, brushed with the seasoned butter on both sides.
It takes a mere couple of minutes on each side under a hot grill, brushing them with butter again when turning over.
And finally, a caveat: if only you can, ask your fishmonger to scale and gut the red mullet for you. I'm a dab hand at gutting fish but this one has very soft underbelly. Cutting through and gutting is just so messy it's better to leave that task to the professionals. Otherwise you end up with mutilated fish flesh and yourself gutted.
More grilled fish recipes
Grilled sea bream with balsamic marinade. Oven grilled, or broiled, whole sea bream seasoned with balsamic seasoning, the best way to cook whole sea bream.
Dover sole is the best grilled. On the bone but skinned, served with plenty of caper and lemon butter - follow this recipe to fish dish perfection.
Grilled whole mackerel with spice crust: it’s healthy, it’s cheap and it takes fifteen minutes to prepare. With a squeeze of lemon and a simple salad, it’s an easy and delightful dish.
More less common fish recipes
John Dory oven roasted whole with thyme on a bed of red peppers and tomatoes is a one-pan dish that tastes fabulous. John Dory is an excellent, flaky white fish albeit quite expensive. Well worth an occasional treat though.
Deep fried sprats can be eaten whole, head, tail and all but it’s very easy to lop the heads off and clean the sprats a bit. An easy, cheap and delicious treat.
Pan fried skate wing fillet with caper butter and crispy garlic. Skate or ray wings can be cooked as they are but much nicer filleted – and it’s really easy to do.