At Saint Peter, Niland has a dedicated dry-ageing room where some are hung on butcher’s hooks in climate-controlled surrounds, without an ice cube in sight. Much like dry-aged meat, the fish’s flavour intensifies and its shelf life can stretch by up to 12 days.

A few doors down at his innovative Fish Butchery, you can buy fish sausages, snapper cutlets, swordfish ‘bacon’ and fresh John Dory livers to cook at home.

Preparing fish in familiar, meaty mediums is all part of Niland’s gentle crusade to break the stigma that comes with the at times unforgiving pin bone-rich protein.

It’s all there in Niland’s The Whole Fish Cookbook which launched this week.

An encyclopaedia of fish cookery, it builds from simple recipes like the best fish sandwich you’ve ever had (see recipe, below), to more complex dishes a la Saint Peter’s Fish Soup.

Of his Oxford St presence, Niland told the Wentworth Courier; “I like the idea of having something quite discreet, but in a relatively affluent area where fish is considered on a daily basis.”

Niland was encouraged by the strip’s fast burgeoning dining scene, with Solotel’s Paddo Inn, Merivale’s The Paddington and the always-heaving 10 William Street all within a stone’s throw.

“It just has a nice little neighbourhood feel and where the fashion has left, the food has come in.”

The chef reveals that he starts his day with a coffee at Bonython Cafe on Underwood Street. “It’s a wonderful little oasis where I can go and have a coffee and write the menu.” While doing the rounds, Niland will stop by Barbetta for a sandwich and if he’s feeling peckish come home time, a few snacks at 10 William Street sorts him out. “[Head chef] Trisha Greentree is an absolute legend. What she’s doing there now with a focus on vegetables is something that I think everyone is loving in Paddington.”

JOSH NILAND’S CRUMBED SARDINE SANDWICH

Who doesn’t love a crumbed fish sandwich on soft white bread? It’s important to fry the sardines in ghee in a pan rather then deep-frying, as the flavour is much better and the degree of cooking is easier to control. This sandwich is so versatile and a number of different fish work perfectly here, including herring, whiting, bream or flathead.
Serves 2

● 150g (5½ oz/1 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
● 4 eggs, lightly whisked
● 120g (4½ oz/2 cups) white panko breadcrumbs
● 8 x 60g (2 oz) sardines, scaled, gutted and butterflied
● 70g (2½ oz) ghee
● Sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper
● 4 slices soft white bread
● Yoghurt tartare sauce (sold at the fish butchery). Alternatively, use hot sauce or mayonnaise

Start by flouring, egg washing and crumbing the butterflied sardines, being sure to leave the tails of the fish uncrumbed.

Heat the ghee in a frying pan over a high heat and cook the crumbed sardines, in batches, on one side for 1 minute, or until golden and crisp, then flip to the other side and fry for a further 10—20 seconds. Remove from the pan and season liberally. Cut the crusts off the bread. Spread some of the sauce over two of the slices of bread from edge to edge, then arrange four sardines on top. Add the remaining sauce on top and then the remaining slices of bread.

Serve with the golden edges of the sardine showing around the edges of the bread and the little tails exposed at one end.

Recipe extract from The Whole Fish Cookbook by Josh Niland published by Hardie Grant Books AU $55.00 available where all good books are sold.

Josh will be selling and signing copies of his book at Carriageworks Farmers Market on Saturday September 7 from 8am-1pm at his Fish Butchery stall