Something fishy with Simon Rhodes from Lobsterpot Fishmongers, Wood Street Food Hall

THE common ling is a great tasting fish found in abundance around our shores but it is rarely seen in our restaurants or fishmongers.

Often found in very deep waters and especially around wrecks, this underrated fish is mainly caught via long line trawlers.

A relative of the cod, it is a firm-fleshed fish and can accompany a variety of flavours to suit its sweet meat.

It is a long fish; the biggest caught on rod and line measured 6ft in length off the coast of Shetland.

It is also a delicacy in Iceland at Christmas time.

The salted roe of the ling is considered a delicacy in Spain and is known as huevas de maruca.

The ling’s diet consists of smaller fish such as herring, sprats, baby cod, and sometimes crab and lobster. They often curl themselves up in rocks and wrecks and lay in wait for long periods for their prey to pass.

Here are a couple of mouth-water-ling recipes.

Oven roasted Ling with a Herb Crust First make the herb crust by tearing some bread into small pieces and blitzing it in a food blender to make breadcrumbs. Then add the juice of a lemon and a clove of garlic and some fresh herbs such as parsley, chives and sage.

Then add a little olive oil so the crust keeps its shape. Finally season the mixture and mould on to the top of some skinned ling fillets. Place in an oven at 180C for about 15 minutes. These are ideal with oven roasted cherry vine tomatoes.

Oven roasted Ling with Lemon zest autumn vegetables First, roughly chop some autumn vegetables including butternut squash, red onion, leeks and sweet potato or whatever you fancy vegetable wise.

Place the vegetables in a roasting dish and drizzle with a good quality olive oil, lemon zest, sea salt, black pepper, some sprigs of thyme and a little sugar.

Roast these vegetables on quite a high heat around 200C for about 20 minutes. Then add the ling and some chopped chorizo to the roasting dish and drizzle with olive oil and roast with the vegetables for about 10 minutes more until the fish is just cooked. Serve all together with some couscous or boiled rice.