Smoked Chilean Sea Bass with Thai Vinaigrette

Description

This recipe yields 4 servings.

Ingredients

Seabass and tea smoke

• 4 x 4 oz Chilean sea bass fillets, skin off
• 2 tbsp uncooked rice
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tsp leaves from 2 Earl Grey tea bags, removed from packets
• ¼ tsp light olive oil with a dash of toasted sesame oil

Couscous

• ½ tsp light olive oil with a dash of toasted sesame oil
• ¼ cup roughly chopped fresh lemongrass
• 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger root
• ¼ cup chopped green onion, white bulb only
• grated zest of ½ lime
• 3¾ cup fish stock
• 1 pch freshly ground sea salt
• 10 oz instant couscous

Vinaigrette

• 1 cup reserved seasoned stock
• 1 tbsp thinly sliced fresh ginger root
• ¼ cup thinly sliced fresh lemongrass
• 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tbsp light olive oil
• ¼ tsp toasted sesame oil
• 2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves
• 12 fresh mint leaves
• 2 tsp arrowroot mixed with 4 tsp reserved, (slurry) vinaigrette

Raw vegetable garnish

• 1 x 5 inch piece fresh ginger root, sliced into 4 flat pieces length-ways, up to 6
• 2 green onion, sliced length-ways into thin pieces
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into long toothpick size strips
• ½ English cucumber, cut into long thin strips
• 1 carrot, cut into long thin strips
• mint leaves, sliced thinly

Directions

Seabass and tea smoke

1. Rinse and pat dry the fillets with a paper towel.
2. Cut 3 sheets of heavy duty aluminium foil into 15 inch squares.
3. Roll the edges under to form a circle that fits in the bottom of a large heavy pot or dutch oven. The pot should not be made of a light alloy or alloy bonded to other metals. Cast iron, aluminium or steel pans work fine.
4. You should have a foil "saucer" about 5 inches in diameter.
5. When the edge is rolled to about 1 inch high, stop and flatten the foil. Depress the centre to hold the smoke ingredients.
6. In the depression of the aluminium foil saucer, sprinkle the rice on the bottom, the cloves and then the contents of the tea bags.
7. Place the foil dish in the bottom of the dutch oven, cover the pan tightly and cook over high heat until the ingredients in the foil start smoking, about 5 minutes.
8. Brush a long-legged steamer basket with the olive oil.
9. Place the sea bass ion the steamer platform.
10. Put into the dutch oven over the smoke ingredients, cover, and continue smoking over high heat until cooked through, about 8 minutes.
11. Remove from heat and let cool.

Couscous

1. Pour the oil into a medium saucepan and fry the lemongrass, ginger, green onion and lime zest for 2 minutes.
2. Add the stock and bring to a boil.
3. Turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes to allow for infusion and reduction.
4. Strain into a large measuring cup - you want to have 3 cups of liquid.
5. Reserve 1 cup for the vinaigrette.
6. Pour the remaining 2 cups back into the saucepan and bring back to a boil.
7. Stir in the salt and couscous, cover, remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

Vinaigrette

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the reserved stock, ginger and lemongrass and boil until reduced to ½ cup, about 10 minutes.
2. Strain into a blender jar.
3. Add the lime juice, soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, coriander and mint leaves and whiz for 2 minutes to emulsify or hold together.
4. Reserve 1½ tbsp.
5. Pour the rest into a small saucepan and bring to the boil.
6. Remove from the heat, stir in the arrowroot slurry, return to the heat and bring to a boil to thicken and clear, about 30 seconds.
7. To serve, make a mound of couscous on each plate and place a smoked fillet on top.

Raw vegetable garnish

1. Arrange the raw vegetable garnish (reserving the mint) around the plate.
2. Ladle the vinaigrette atop the sea bass and garnish it with slivers of mint.