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For the Pan Fried Fish:

• 4 fillets of flat fish, e.g. john dory, plaice, sole, brill or turbot
• Approximately 100g plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper
• 25g soft butter

Tomato and Basil Hollandaise Sauce

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp water
• 110g butter
• 2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
• A few basil leaves, sliced or chopped
• A squeeze of lemon juice

Asparagus

• 16 asparagus spears, woody bases snapped off
• Good pinch of salt and ground pepper

Pan Fried Fish:

Dry the fish fillets on kitchen paper. Dip in the seasoned flour and shake off the excess. Heat a cast iron or non-stick frying pan on a high heat until very hot. Spread some soft butter on one side of the fillets and place on the hot pan, buttered side down. Turn when golden underneath, then cook again until golden on the other side.

Serve on warm plates with the tomato and basil hollandaise and the asparagus, and serve immediately

Boiled Asparagus

Fill a large saucepan to a depth of 4–6cm (1 1⁄2 – 2 1⁄2 in) with water, add the salt and bring to the boil. Tip in the asparagus and cook in the boiling water for 2–4 minutes or just until tender when pierced with a sharp knife. Drain immediately.

Tomato and Basil Hollandaise Sauce

Place the egg yolks in a small to medium saucepan, one that has a good heavy base if possible. Cut the butter into cubes, about 1 cm in size, and place somewhere very close to the hob. Add the water into the pan and place the pan sitting over a low heat. Immediately add a couple of cubes of butter into the pan and start whisking the mixture to blend/emulsify the butter into the egg yolks. Always make sure to have a couple of cubes of butter in the pan, adding more whenever any are mixed in. If the pan gets too hot the mixture will scramble, which you don't want. Ensure that it doesn't overheat by regularly holding your hands around the sides of the pan, if it's too hot to do that, then it's too hot for the eggs. Take the pan off and on the heat regularly to prevent it overheating. Never leave the sauce unattended on the heat!

When all the butter has been added in you should have a rich yellow thickened sauce. Take it off the heat and add in the tomato chunks, basil and a squeeze of lemon juice to flavour, and some salt, to taste.

Use the sauce straightway, or if you wish you can keep it warm. Many people will use a flask for this (which is very convenient if you're bringing the sauce to someone's house, as it'll stay warm), I prefer to pour it into a heatproof jug, like a Pyrex measuring jug, and sit it in a saucepan with steaming hot but not boiling water to keep warm. Heat up the water as it cools, but beware as it can still scramble (or split) at this stage. If you allow the sauce to cool then heat it up it will split, so temperature control is crucial with this sauce, like any of the emulsified butter sauces.

If it's been keeping warm for a while it might thicken a little, in which case you'll need to add a small splash of water to thin it out.

Serve warm.