Grilled Kingfish with Lemon and Parsley

Hiramasa kingfish is the fish we point people at when they say they want to grill something and they don't want it to fall through the bars. It is firm, it is clean-tasting, and it has enough natural oil in it that it forgives you if you're thirty seconds late off the heat.

This is a weeknight dinner, not a project. Twenty minutes start to finish, one pan or one grill plate, and it lands at about forty-three grams of protein a serve.

What you need

• 4 kingfish fillets, about 180 g each, skin on
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 1 lemon — zest and juice
• A good handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 400 g broccolini
• Sea salt and cracked pepper

Ask us for it skin on and pin-boned. The skin is what stops the fillet drying out on a hot grill, and you can leave it or lift it off at the table.

How to cook it

1. Get the pan properly hot. Grill plate, barbecue or heavy frying pan — it needs to be hot before the fish goes near it, or the skin sticks.
2. Dry the fish. Pat both sides with paper towel, then rub with half the oil and season the skin side well.
3. Skin down first, and leave it alone. Four to five minutes without touching it. When the skin releases from the pan by itself, it's ready to turn.
4. Turn once. Two to three minutes on the flesh side. Kingfish is at its best just barely opaque in the middle — pull it a touch early, it keeps cooking on the plate.
5. Broccolini in the same pan. Rest of the oil, the garlic, the broccolini and a splash of water. Lid on for two minutes, then lid off until it catches a bit of colour.
6. Finish. Lemon zest and juice over the fish, parsley over everything, cracked pepper. Serve straight away.

Making it work for you

Leaner again: halve the oil and steam the broccolini instead of pan-frying it. That takes it under 250 calories a serve.

Bulking: a cup of rice on the side adds roughly 200 calories and 45 g of carbohydrate.

Meal prep: kingfish is one of the few fish that's still good cold the next day. Cook the four, eat two, flake the rest through a salad for lunch.

No kingfish today? Tuna steaks behave the same way on a grill — same timings, same method, and just as lean.