Fish stew

Skin and fillet the monkfish tail. Fillet the mullet and John Dory, leaving the skin on. Rinse all the bones and put them to one side.

In a large, heavy based pan, sweat the carrot, onion , garlic and fennel with a little olive oil. After about five minutes, add the tomato puree, bay leaf, thyme and saffron and continue to cook for a few minutes.

In a separate large frying pan, heat a little more olive oil and add the fish bones. Cook over a medium heat until coloured, crushing them down as much as possible with a wooden spoon.

Tip the fish bones into the pot with the vegetables, then put the frying pan back on the heat. Pour the white wine into the pan, allowing it to bubble up and deglaze the pan. Add this into the vegetables.

Pour enough water into the large pan to just cover the fish bones and vegetables. Simmer for 30 minutes to allow the flavours to develop, then strain through into a clean saucepan. Really push all the contents of the sieve with the back of spoon to extract all the liquid you can.

Add the remaining vegetables to this fish stock and cook until tender.

Meanwhile, heat a couple of frying pans. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a knob of butter to each. Cut four 90g fillets from the monkfish tail and add them to the pan. These should take about 8 minutes to cook.

In separate pans, fry the fillets of mullet for 4 minutes and the fillets of dory for 1 ½ minutes. Drain them all onto kitchen paper.

Spoon a pile of vegetables and a generous helping of the cooking liquor into each serving bowl. Top each dish with a selection of the pan-fried fish and garnish with the chives and tarragon.