We love when our esteemed chefs share their Ōra King recipes and give us an insight into the work that has gone into the masterpiece. The recipe below is no exception, Thomas won the award for Best Dish NZ at the 2015 Ōra King Awards with his delightful dish Flavours of the Sea.
Judge Lauraine Jacobs, described the dish as “sensational” Lauraine went on to say that ….”he (Thomas) really showed respect for our oceans by including a wide selection of delicious local seafoods and seaweeds, all napped by a perfectly executed bouillabaisse consommé. Most important, the salmon was the hero of Thomas’ dish. Briefly poached, it had terrific texture and lovely flavour and shone like a beacon in the centre of the plate, he incorporated both salmon skin as crackling and salmon roe in the dish showing the diverse ways Ōra King salmon can be used”
Thomas’ dish is most definitely all those things Lauraine describes, it is also complex and time consuming to prepare – needless to say, it’s still on my ‘to-do list’!
Thomas Barta, Head Chef Harbourside Ocean Bar & Grill
Winner Ōra King Best Dish NZ 2015
DISH: Flavours of the sea
Poached Ōra King salmon, bouillabaisse consommé with crayfish, paua, clam, smoked octopus and New Zealand seaweeds.
Flavours of the Sea
Serves 2
200 g Ōra King salmon belly
1 baby abalone
Smoked octopus tentacle
Crayfish meat
Saffron rouille potatoes
Samphire
Squid ink crouton
Sea grapes
Dried selection of seaweeds
(Sea lettuce, sea chicory, wakame, kombu)
Salmon crackling
Bouillabaisse consommé
Crayfish oil
Method:
Make the bouillabaisse consommé first:
200g snapper frames
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fennel
1/4 cup chopped carrot
2 tbsp sliced shallot
2 cloves of garlic
1/8 tablespoon saffron
1/4 cup Pernod
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup fresh or canned whole peeled tomatoes
1 cup fish stock
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup crayfish stock
1/2 cup Cloudy Bay clams cooking liquid
Salt
Lime juice
Cayenne pepper
Cut the fish bones into medium pieces. Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the fish bones and sear until lightly browned. Add the fennel, carrot, shallot, garlic and saffron and sweat. Deglaze the pan with the Pernod, cooking until almost dry. Add the white wine and cook until almost dry. Add the tomatoes, fish stock, chicken stock, crayfish stock and the clam cooking liquid.
Simmer the stock mixture for 30 minutes. Puree the entire mixture in a blender until smooth.
Pass it through a fine chinois or a double cheese cloth. Then clarify it with egg whites using the classic method. Taste and reduce if necessary. Don’t season it, the seaweeds will do the job.
You should have a crystal clear intense flavoured broth.
Ōra King salmon:
From the belly part from the salmon; take off the skin and reserve it for later. Using a sashimi knife cut roughly to 4 centimetres wide and 10 centimetres long. Cure with sugar, salt, lemon zest, lime zest, orange zest, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, star anise at room temperature for around 30-40 minutes then wash off. Roll with glad wrap into a perfect cylinder then poach in a water bath at 40°C for 20 minutes.
Crayfish:
Blanch the crayfish very gently in court bouillon until just cooked. Dice the cray meat and bind it with a touch of lemon and chive mayonnaise.
Baby abalone:
Take from shell, clean, then sauté in a very hot pan with foaming garlic and parsley butter for around 30-40 seconds.
Smoked octopus:
Cook the octopus in hot court bouillon gently for a couple of hours until tender. When cooked, clean and gently smoke before slicing into small discs.
Cloudy Bay clams:
Sauté some finely chopped shallots and garlic in a bit of butter and olive oil. Add the clams and deglaze it with white wine. Add a touch of lemon juice and cook the clams until they just opened.
Strain and cool immediately. Reserve the liquid and marinade the clams in their own juice.
Ōra King salmon crackling:
Scrape the salmon skin with a sharp knife until clean. Salt it with sea salt for an hour. Scrub the salt away and cut in to small triangles. Place on a tray between two sheets of baking paper. Place a heavy tray on the top and bake in the oven at 160-170°C until golden brown and crisp. Fry in very hot oil until it puffs up.
Squid ink crouton:
Sweat some small mirepoix in a pan. Deglaze it with Pernod and white wine, add squid ink, fish stock, thyme, bay leaf and reduce until sticky. Soak some sour dough cubes in the ink and fry until crispy.
To assemble the dish:
Start with the dried seaweed; sprinkle around the plate in an organised manner, add samphire and rehydrated sea grapes. Heat the salmon gently and place in the middle of the plate topping with the salmon crackling. Arrange the rest of the ingredients clockwise around the salmon. Add some dots of crayfish oil on the plate as well as Ora King caviar.
Serve the hot consommé in a jug alongside the plate. Pour the consommé over the plate and let the seaweeds rehydrate for a few minutes, this will allow the umami flavours to come out, taking the flavours of your consommé to a whole new level.
All images by Jonny Davis
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