Ben Batterbury won the award for Best Ora King Dish NZ in the 2014 competition, so naturally we approached him to ask if he’d like to cook at this year’s Ora King Awards lunch held at Raetihi Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds in October.
The brief for the lunch was fairly simple; consider our theme Our Origins, Our Future and the sustainability message that provokes, consider using different, often forgotten parts of the fish in innovative ways in addition to keeping the ingredients as local as possible.
Ben did a marvellous job of meeting the brief. He used Cloudy Bay Clams for his panna cotta, grapeseed oil from local company Uncle Joe’s (who also stock a fabulous array of nuts and nut oils), Marlborough wakame and all the fruit and vegetables were sourced locally too.
Ben made use of the Ora King bones to make salmon oil and incorporated the Ora King skin into his dish too. What resulted was a quirky and fun dish which payed homage to Ben’s English roots and a nod to the quintessential British seaside treat of a ‘stick of rock’. The coloured ice cream spoons which are ubiquitous at British seaside resorts provided the perfect finishing touch!
Ora King At The Seaside, Ben Batterbury, Head Chef The Rees True South Dining, Queenstown
Cloudy Bay Clam Panna Cotta
40g Lemongrass, chopped
240g Cream
100g Milk
2g Agar
200g Cloudy Bay Clams, cooked
Salt
Lemon Juice
Sweat the chopped lemongrass in a little oil, add the cream, milk and agar and bring to the boil. Add the clams and using a stick blender, blend adding lemon juice and salt to taste. Pass through a chinois and set in glasses
Lapsang Mascarpone
1ltr Cream
20g Lemon Zest (1 Lemon)
8g Lapsang Souchong tea
Bring cream to the boil and add the tea. Leave overnight to infuse. Strain the cream and bring to 90°C, add 180g Lemon Juice. Hang overnight in supabag in fridge until set.
Lapsang Smoked Salmon Mousse
Lightly smoke fresh Ora King salmon over lapsang tea leaves and smoking chips. Dry overnight in a cloth in the fridge.
300g Ora King salmon smoked with Lapsang tea
200g Ora King Manuka smoked salmon
200g Lapsang Mascarpone
Chill your robo coupe bowl overnight before blitzing the salmon together with a little salt and chill in the robo coupe. Repeat this twice more until smooth. Pass the mix through a drum sieve and fold in the mascarpone over ice and reserve.
Salmon Oil
150g Roasted salmon bones
150g Uncle Joe’s grapeseed Oil
Vac pac and leave in fridge until required
Orange and Sesame Dressing
60g fresh OJ
20g Sugar
20g Rice Vinegar
20g Fish Sauce
20g Sesame Oil
Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar and add the remaining ingredients
Orange Salad
20g Spring Onion
20g Toasted Sesame Seeds
75g Orange segments
40g soaked Marlborough Wakame
Pinch chilli Flakes
Mix all ingredients together and dress with the orange and sesame dressing
Salmon Sand
20g Uncle Joes grapeseed Oil
40g Dried Anchovies
20g Kombu
225g Malto
75g Rice Bubbles
100g Panko breadcrumbs, fried in Uncle Joe’s Grapeseed Oil
50g Miso Oil
25g Salmon Oil
30g Dried Salmon
Fry the anchovies in the grapeseed oil until golden then drain. Blend the kombu in a spice mill. Blend all the dry ingredients together in a blender until smooth then add the oils slowly until you achieve the texture of sand.
Salmon Skin
Remove skin, clean and scale. Dehydrate at 80°C until crisp, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar.
Dried Salmon
Dry salmon trim at 80°C until dry then blend.
Plum Sauce Jelly
2 Star Anise
4 Cloves
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Pinch Allspice
375g Tinned Plum Juice
15g Fresh Ginger, grated
2 Cloves Garlic, grated
25ml Soy Sauce
38g Fresh Orange Juice
1/2 Shallot, sliced
38g Red Wine Vinegar
25g Brown Sugar
10g Toasted Sesame Seeds
100g Water
75g Beetroot Juice
Boil all together in a pan except the beet juice and leave to infuse for 1 hour. Add the beet juice and pass through a chionis.
Per litre of liquid add 10g Agar and 10 leaves gelatine.
Boil the agar into 1/4 of the liquid, add the remainder and warm the mixture. Add the softend gelatine and pass into a clean pan and keep warm.
Set on a thin tray sprayed with oil and chill on a flat surface. When the mix is cold, pipe the salmon mousse on and roll into tubes, place the ‘salmon rock’ in the freezer to firm up so you can cut it into neat cylinders.
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