Ingredients
SERVES 4
4 x 200 g Cone Bay saltwater barramundi portions, skin on (ask your fishmonger to portion for you)
Olive oil, salt and pepper
FOR THE SPANNER CRAB PARCELS
200 g picked spanner crab meat
1 bunch chives, finely chopped
1 wombok (chinese cabbage)
Salt and pepper
FOR THE SAGE & ESCHALLOT CREAM
5 eschalots finely sliced (Note: these are the little French onions, not spring onions)
1 bunch sage roughly chopped
A little olive oil
250ml dry white wine
400ml pouring cream
Salt and pepper to taste
FOR THE GARNISHES
1) Red oil: 4 tbsp tomato paste, 4 cloves peeled garlic & 100 mls olive oil
2) Enoki mushrooms, deep-fried until crispy
3) 1 punnet picked mache baby herbs
Method
SPANNER CRAB PARCEL
Pick 4 nice green wombok leaves. Plunge into salted boiling water for 30 seconds. Then plunge into ice water to refresh. When cool, dry them off with a tea towel and set aside. Mix spanner crab meat with chopped chives, and season with salt & pepper. Place 50g of spanner crab/chive mix on each wombok leaf, and wrap up into a parcel and place them aside.
SAGE AND ESCHALOT CREAM
Start by sautéing the fine sliced eschalots and sage in a pan using a little olive oil – cook until eschalots become transparent. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and reduce until almost gone. Then add the cream, bring just to the boil, then turn down. Allow to reduce slowly, until thick. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then strain. Set aside, keeping warm.
RED OIL
Place tomato paste in a saucepan with garlic and olive oil and cook on a very low heat for 45 minutes or until oil turns red. When oil is red, strain and discard the rest. Set red oil aside to use as garnish later on.
PUTTING DISH TOGETHER & PLATING
Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Season barramundi portions with olive oil, and salt & pepper. Pre-heat large oiled pan until just smoking. Place barramundi in the pan, skin side down and cook on high for 1 minute. Put in pre-heated oven for 5 – 6 minutes, or until just cooked. Place spanner crab parcels in steamer and steam for 5 minutes.
Put 30 ml of the sage and eschalot cream on bottom of each plate (use a bowl plate like a pasta plate, rather than a flat plate). Place the crab parcel on top of the sauce. Drizzle red oil around, on top of the sauce using a teaspoon. Place barramundi on top of crab parcel, skin side up. Top the fish with fried enoki mushroom and place sprigs of mache around the plate in top of the sauce.
Recipe provided by Catalina