Ingredients
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180 grams stone bass
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1 kilogram leeks3-4
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600 millilitres light chicken stock
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600 millilitres Water
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1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
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80 grams white crab meat
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3 baby leeks
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potato starchoptional
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2 shallots
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200 millilitres red wine vinegar
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200 millilitres red wine
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200 grams Caster Sugar
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1 teaspoon fennel seeds
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1 teaspoon coriander seeds
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1 clove Garlic
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1 bay leaf
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50 grams chives
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50 millilitres rapeseed oil
Directions
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.
Sea Bass
- Season your sea 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 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.
