I spent almost a whole week in Norfolk with my boyfriend’s family at the end of August. We had gorgeous weather (hello heatwave!) and such a lovely time.

And it must have been the nice weather and the proximity to the sea that inspired one of his sisters to barbecue a whole fish. And not just any fish, but a large (huge!) turbot! It was a nice size for the amount of people to feed but it did look ridiculous on the little coal barbecue we insisted on using.

Despite the poor optics it actually worked really well grilling the big fish and the actual cooking time was only approx 30 minutes. The hardest part was turning it over and making a secure tin foil parcel that size to hold all the butter!

I do hope we can inspire you to try new (and perhaps a little crazy) things! And I think any white fish would work well with this treatment; I mean lemon, olive oil and butter are pretty universal when it comes to fish – just adjust the cooking time.

Whole grilled turbot with olive oil, lemon and butter, serves 8

1 whole turbot, gutted  (not sure how much it weighed but as you can see it was big!)

100-200 ml olive oil

salt, pepper

1 lemon, juice only

250 g butter

To serve:

chopped parsley

Rub or brush both sides of the fish with plenty of olive oil so it won’t stick to the barbecue. Season well on both sides. Grill each side for about 5 minutes then remove from the barbecue. Make a large foil packet to hold the fish and add plenty of dollops of butter on each side of the fish. Squeeze plenty of lemon juice on both sides as well and season well (again! – a large fish needs plenty of seasoning).  Close the foil package and put it on the barbecue and cover with a lid. Cook for approx 20 minutes (until the fish is flaky and comes off the bone). Scatter with chopped parsley.