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Goujons have fallen from grace, but it is hard to work out why. The crunch of the breadcrumb casing, the tender, yielding softness of the white fish within: this is a fish finger taken to the highest level. If you can find the Japanese seasoned breadcrumbs, panko, then get them: they create an almost feathery but crunchy casing. The traditional accompaniment is a sauce tartare, but my favourite sauce is a dill mayonnaise, with perhaps some cornichons heaped on a plate nearby.

Consider these a fabulously quick starter when you've got people over or a real treat of a midweek supper for two. The trick here is to prepare ahead for that. I make up a vast batch of these and freeze them. Then, when it's dinnertime and I don't know what I'm going to cook, I heat some oil in a pan and fry a handful from frozen. They barely need an extra minute. I prefer to fry in batches in a small saucepan rather than fill a frying pan with lots of oil and try to get them all done at once.