Warning; don’t even think about wearing white while preparing this. Your kitchen counter and walls will probably be covered in bright red splashes after you grate the beetroot. Mine was. 24 hours later I’m still finding red spots…

Halibut is the fillet steak of the fish world so please don’t faint when the chaps in Steve Hatt tell you how much it is. You can use monkfish or swordfish for this, which might be a little cheaper, but I honestly think that the flavour of halibut goes best with the beetroot and fennel.

For 4 people you will need:

2 large halibut steaks on the bone.

4 medium sized raw beetroot – peeled and halved, stalks and roots removed

1 tbsp fennel seeds

salt and pepper

1 tsp sumac

1 tsp smoked paprika

Large pinch of sea salt

juice of ½ a lime

What to do:

About an hour before you want to eat, mix the salt, sumac and smoked paprika with lime juice in a large shallow bowl and dip each side of the halibut steaks in this mix. Cover and leave the halibut to marinate in the fridge until you are ready to cook it.

Also at least an hour before eating, preheat your oven to 200ºC. Heat some vegetable oil (I use olive) in the pre-heated oven in a roasting tray. Sprinkle the fennel seeds and some salt and pepper into the hot oil. Place the halved beets in the seasoned oil and stir them around so that they are well coated.

Roast the beets in the oven for 20+ minutes, or until you can easily pierce them with a sharp knife.

Remove from the oven and leave the beetroots to cool.

Once they are cool, grate or finely slice the cooked beetroot in the roasting dish or a bowl. Make sure that you keep the fennel seeds in with the grated beetroot.

(This is a messy and time-consuming business, but so worth it.)

In a large frying pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

Fry the grated beetroot and all the fennel seeds on a high heat for 5 minutes, stirring all the time, then place the halibut steaks on top and cook the fish, still on a high heat, for 3 minutes on each side

Turn down the heat a little, cover the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Squeeze a little lime juice over the fish before dividing each steak in 2 and serving on a bed of beetroot.

We ate this with roast potatoes and salad.