Ingredients
2 x 180 gram snapper filets, skin on
Paprika
Salt and pepper
For the polenta triangles
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150 gr medium polenta
450-500 ml cold water
20-30 gr grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Asian vegetables:
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100 gr Wong Bok, julienned
50 gr julienne carrot
50 gr julienne snow peas
25 gr julienne salad onion
25 gr bean sprouts
6-8 coriander leaves, torn or chopped
6-8 mint leaves, torn or chopped
Half a long red chilli, fine sliced
Knob of fresh ginger, peeled and fine sliced
Several good dashes of sesame oil
Garnish
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Japanese pickled ginger
Lemon wedge
Julienne eschalot greens, curled in water
Method
Assemble your equipment; you want a flat tray like a biscuit sheet, a home deep fryer if possible, a saucepan, a sauté pan or two, and a wok, or a large sauté pan. Set your oven to grill. Grab a cutting board, favourite (hopefully sharp) knife, and a cake palate or spatula if you have one. Also a non-stick spray is handy. Get all your prep done first and this dish rolls along, once the fish goes under the grill it’ll take around five minutes to go to the plate. Total time from starting prep to table around 20-30 min, excluding the polenta, make it a hour or two ahead.
Place polenta and water in a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil, but watch it as it will thicken and burn, so stir frequently and lower heat. Simmer and stir10-15 minutes until the polenta is well cooked, it’ll get pretty thick, but don’t add any more water, you want it to sit up like a brick. Toss in the grated Parmesan,season and stir through. Get your flat tray, give it a spray with the non-stick, or oil it, then pour out the polenta onto the tray, Spray your cake palette, or spatula, and smooth the polenta into a level cake approximately 2 cm thick. Try and get it square. When you’re happy with it, toss it in the fridge and let it cool, it should get nice and firm, alternatively leave it out on the counter for an hour or two.
In the meantime, prep your veg and fish by cutting three slits in the skin on a nice angle for presentation, so far so good?
Pull the polenta out of the fridge when it’s cool and firm, and using your paring knife, cut the polenta into four triangles, around 10cm at the short side. Want to get fancy, use a biscuit cutter to make rounds or whatever you like.
Crank up the grill and put two sauté pans on the stove on medium heat with some oil in them. Season the fish, sprinkle the skin with paprika and place in one of the pans, give it a minute to seal on that side then toss it pan and all under the grill. In the other pan (or if you have a deep fryer), place the polenta triangles in and let cook til crispy on one side then flip and crisp up the other side. Get a good flame under your wok, drizzle some oil in there and drop in all the veg in at once, season, and toss quickly to cook the veg tender crisp, it’ll just take less than a minute. Finish with the sesame oil and remove from heat.
To assemble, your fish should come out firm to the touch and crispy skinned. Get a couple of warm pasta bowls, and divide the Asian greens between them, season the polenta triangles and place on the greens, lay the snapper on top and garnish with the ginger, lemon wedge and curled eschalot.
Serves 2
Recipe provided by Tonic Wine & Coffee Cafe