Jane Grigson was dismissive of pollack and other lower members of the cod family in her book Fish Cookery (1973). “Monday fish, hardly worth elevating to Friday,” she sniffed. Rick Stein favoured pollack more in his 1995 book The Taste of The Sea, suggesting that the large bone-free fillets are excellent for fish pies.

The chef Mark Hix dishes it up with parsley sauce, in fish pie, and with samphire and cockles in his recent book Fish, Etc.

I ordered some from my fishmonger, and discovered that it pays to have an open mind. By treating it as I would cod, I was surprised at how good and meaty it was, cleaving into large, silky flakes at the touch of a fork. OK, it was a bit lighter in flavour, but I still can’t see why pollack isn’t in fishmongers, on trendy menus and on tabletops throughout the land. We should be putting more pressure on our chefs and fish suppliers to offer us reasonably priced, decent fish such as this instead of expensive and endangered species.

Besides, pollack is so easy to cook. Try fast-baking thick fillets at 200C/Gas 6 for 15 minutes and serving them with oven-roasted tomatoes, or cut into large chunks to add to Mediterranean fish soups, spicy Thai curries and fish pies. Or you could just sear them in a hot pan, as I did, to serve with spring greens and bacon.

SEARED POLLACK, SPRING GREENS AND BACON

Prep: 10 min plus salting
Cook: 20 min

Serves 4

4 x 200g pollack fillets, skin on
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
8 rashers dry-cured streaky bacon
400g spring greens
Butter for greens
Sea salt and pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, quartered

METHOD

Rub the fish with salt and set it aside for 30 minutes. Pat dry and coat lightly with flour.

Heat the butter and oil together in a non-stick pan and cook the fish skin-side down until the skin is crisp and the fish is 80 per cent cooked. Turn once and briefly cook the other side.

In the meantime, grill or pan-fry the bacon until crisp. Shred the spring greens, discarding any hard stalk or core, and cook in simmering salted water for 5 minutes until tender but still bright green. Drain well and toss with a little extra butter, sea salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Serve the pollack on a bed of spring greens and top with the crispy bacon. Finally, garnish with lemon quarters.

www.timesonline.co.uk/foodandwine
— for previous recipes from T2