“Come and eat Ōra King salmon at Pier 24 – it’s the Ōra King Awards,” said Lyn Owen – Ōra King Foodservice Representative, South Island.
How could I refuse her invitation! Michael Coughlin, executive chef at Pier 24, is one of Dunedin’s best.
The sound of the breakers on St Clair Beach greets you when you park your car and walk across to the restaurant that overlooks the sea – lovely during the day, but at night there’s not a lot to see and we are hungry.
Lyn and I take our seats and neither of us can resist a starter of shrimp and avocado mayonnaise wrapped in a slice of pickled cucumber, topped with smoked salmon and crisp slivers of wonton, and surrounded by a caper and dill dressing. It was clean and fresh, creamy with real mayonnaise, balanced by the contrasting sharpness of the pungent little capers.
Coughlin is a master of texture and flavour and it showed again in his main of creamy roasted Ōra King salmon crusted with toasted nori and black sesame ground to a powder. It was accompanied by chewy butternut and shiitake dumplings, a silky butternut puree, crunchy little edamame beans, a hot and sour dressing that contrasted with the richness of the salmon and the piece de resistance, a brittle shard of salmon skin crackling.
Served in a pottery dish to highlight the Asian flavours of shiitake, black vinegar dressing and edamame, it was a triumph of textures and flavours.
The recommended Black Barn un-oaked chardonnay 2013 was fresh enough to cut through the richness of the salmon and to stand up to the more challenging hot and sour flavours of the dressing.
Chefs, restaurants and diners alike are welcome to nominate Ōra King salmon dishes for this year’s 2014 Ōra King Awards. All you have to do is post a photo of the dish, description and restaurant and use the tag #orakingawards to your preferred social media platform; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, and it’s that easy!
Diners go in the draw to win a $200 dinner voucher, just for posting a nomination, and chefs go in the running to take out the award for ‘Best Ōra King Salmon Dish – New Zealand 2014’, and ‘Best Ōra King Salmon Dish – International 2014’. Read more about the awards here…
Post by Charmian Smith – posted on her behalf by Sophie Burcher
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