Swordfish

Espadon

What it is

Behind its eyes sits a mass of modified muscle that burns fuel purely as a heater, holding eyes and brain up to fifteen degrees above the cold water it hunts in; those cells carry a higher density of mitochondria than any other known animal cell. The bill is not a spear but a blade — it slashes sideways through a shoal and turns back for whatever it stunned.

In the kitchen

The flesh is dense and low in moisture and there is no fat to buy you time: sear it hard and pull it at 50–52 °C, still pink at the centre. If it must be cooked through, brine it twenty minutes in 5 % salt water first — nothing else keeps a well-done steak from going to rope.

Goes with

Olive oil Lemon Capers Oregano Tomato Mint Pine nut

In season alongside

Allis shad European conger Albacore Bonito (katsuo) Grey mullet Mackerel

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