Pan-Fried Stone Bass with Burnt Leek Puree, Crab Meat & Pickled Shallots

Pan-Fried Stone Bass with Burnt Leek Puree, Crab Meat & Pickled Shallots

Ingredients

• 180 grams stone bass
• 1 kilogram leeks
• 600 millilitres light chicken stock
• 600 millilitres water
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
• 80 grams white crab meat
• 3 baby leeks
• potato starch
• 2 shallots
• 200 millilitres red wine vinegar
• 200 millilitres red wine
• 200 grams caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 50 grams chives
• 50 millilitres rapeseed oil

Shallots:

• The first thing you need to do is to pickle your shallots. Cut the shallot rings from the shallots and salt for 30 minutes to extract any moisture.
• Put your red wine and red wine vinegar into a pan with the fennel seeds, coriander seeds, bay leaf and garlic and bring to the boil.
• Pour over your shallots after you have washed the salt off them and set to the side. Ideally, the shallots should be left to pickle for 3-4 days.

Crispy Leeks:

• Finely slice the green part of 1 leek and dust with potato starch.
• Deep fry at 170°C for 3-4 minutes until crispy. Drain on paper towel and set aside for later.

Burnt Leek Puree:

• Cut the leeks into 2 inch chunks and heat a large pan up with a little vegetable oil.
• Add your leeks so they are uniformly frying on one side. Fry until burnt before frying them on their opposite side until burnt.
• Transfer to a sauce pan and add your chicken stock and water and reduce the leeks until they are tender enough to blitz into a puree.
• Blitz in a food processor on full speed for at least 2 minutes (you may need to loosen with a little more chicken stock before blitzing).
• Add salt and sherry vinegar to taste. You want to add just enough vinegar to counteract the bitterness of the puree.
• Pass the puree through a fine sieve to make it nice and smooth.

Baby Leeks:

• Bring a pan of water to the boil with plenty of salt and blanch your baby leeks for 30 seconds.
• Let them cool at room temperature so they are ready to be chargrilled later.

Crab:

• Pick your white crab meat and discard any shell, keeping the meat in nice big chunks. Set aside.

Chive Emulsion:

• Blanch your chives in salted water for 20 seconds and plunge into iced water straight away.
• Squeeze out the excess water and blitz with the rapeseed oil adding a little salt before passing through a fine cloth so you are left with a bright green oil.

Stone Bass:

• Season your stone bass with salt and place in a hot pan with a little vegetable oil.
• When you can see the skin starting to crisp up a little, turn the heat down low and leave to cook for a good 2 minutes.
• Add a little cold, salted butter, turn the heat up and cook for a further few minutes. The skin should be crisping up, turning golden brown.
• When you have your crispy skin on the bass, flip it over and flick the foaming salted butter over the fish. This will create a little buttery oven for the fish and lock all the flavour in.
• Continue flicking the butter until the inside of the fish is warm. To test the temperature, insert a metal spike into the middle of the fish and leave for 10 seconds before placing it on your lip. If it’s warm, the bass is ready to rest; if it’s cold it needs to cook a little longer.
• When warm in the middle, take the bass out and place on a piece of kitchen roll to rest whilst you are preparing the rest of the dish.

To Serve:

• Warm up the leek puree and swipe along the bottom of the plate.
• Warm your crab meat gently in a pan with a touch of salted butter and place on the puree.
• Place the stone bass on top of the crab.
• Chargrill the leeks and arrange on and around the bass.
• Add a few of your pickled shallot rings around the dish.
• Sprinkle a few of the crispy leeks on top.
• Drizzle the chive emulsion around the edge of the plate.

Notes

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