WE’VE cooked 27 different dishes over the last three days, some complex, some very simple.

One of the simplest and finest I’d like to share is a perfect example of going the extra mile to get a sensational result and impress all your friends.

Hake, pistachio and cauliflower sauce, kindzmari; recipe from the amazing Olia Hercules’ new book, ‘Kaukasis’. We had the delight of sharing our kitchen with her on Sunday and cooking lunch for 48 very lucky guests.

Toast 80 grams of pistachio nuts, then blitz to a powder. Scatter half a cauliflower, broken into florets, into a roasting tray, add a couple of shallots, peeled and quartered, dotted round with 30 grams of butter and doused with 100 mil of fish stock, home-made of course, then add a pinch of saffron threads, season well with salt and roast for about half an hour at 180C, get a bit of colour on the cauliflower and shallots.

When they’re done, blitz them into a creamy paste with a little extra fish stock, add the pistachio powder and blitz a bit more. Done For the kindzmari sauce, and this was my favourite out of the twenty seven, chuck 30g coriander, stalks and all, into a blender with 2 chopped green chilli, seeds removed, 1 garlic clove, 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and some Malden salt, then blitz it into a bright green, creamy paste.

The end result is absolute heaven, and for a fish dish, it’s the equivalent of mint sauce on a shoulder of lamb, so make sure to make enough.

Grab some hake, skin on, 100 gram portions will probably do it for a starter, season well, especially the skin side and pan fry, skin side down for about five or six minutes. Then turn the fish over in the pan and remove from the heat, allow it to continue cooking for a few minutes until perfectly done. I prefer slightly under to the flaked cardboard served in a lot of restaurants, but that’s just me. I work on the basis that fish eats perfectly well raw, so don’t muck about with it too much.

To plate up, put a tablespoon of the cauliflower mix on the (warm) plate. Place the hake on top and a teaspoon of the fiery coriander by the side.

If you have the energy you could pan fry some crispy shallot rings to scatter on top, but apart from that, DO NOT GARNISH.