Barramundi, Sea Clams, Foraged Greens and Whey Sauce - Chef Recipe by James Egan.

Ingredients

Whey sauce:

100g reduced whey
100g butter
100g crème fraiche

Foraged greens
Sea clams

Parsley oil:

Bunch of parsley, stalks removed
100mL grapeseed oil

Confit potato:

1 potato
1 tsp fennel seed
1 sprig lemon thyme
Pinch of salt

2 skin-on boneless barramundi portions (about 160 g)

Method

If you have a local cheesemaker, ask them for some whey – it is a byproduct that usually gets discarded. You want acidic whey, not sweet.

Place whey in a pot and reduce by two-thirds, it should change colour from almost clear to yellow. Combine with butter and crème fraiche and heat on low until the butter is melted.

Use a stick blender to emulsify. Season.

Wash and remove all sand and woody stems from foraged greens.

Source the sea clams from your fishmonger, rinse of any sand, or grit and reverse.

Parsley oil:

Add ingredients to Thermomix – speed 4, 70 C for 12 minutes. Blitz on high, then pass through a muslin cloth.

Confit potato:

Peel potato. Using a Parisienne scoop, scoop balls of potato out of the whole potato.

Place in a vacuum bag with fennel seed, sea salt and lemon thyme. Seal and cook in a circulator at 85 C until tender (about 40 minutes).

Alternatively, cover in oil and wrap with foil. Place in a medium oven for 35 or until tender.

Strain off oil and aromatics and reserve.

Barramundi:

Bring fish fillets to room temperature and season with salt.

Place a cast iron pan on a medium heat, add a small amount of ghee to pan.

Add seasoned barramundi, skin down. Allow the skin to naturally relax to the pan, rather than pressing it – this will prevent the skin from tearing away from the flesh and help to keep the fish moist.

Drop heat to low, add confit potato and continue to cook skin side down for 4 minutes, or until the colour of the flesh has changed from opaque to white half of the way up the fillet and the potato has coloured.

Flip fish, add sea clams and 100mL of whey sauce. Bring to a slow simmer – poaching the last of the fish and allowing the clams to cook through and open.

Remove from heat, add foraged greens.

Check seasoning of whey sauce. The clams will add their juice and a little salt.

Place fish in a warmed bowl and add a little flake salt. Spoon potatoes, clams and greens next to fish, pour whey sauce over the top.
Add a small amount of parsley oil to finish.

Recipe provided by Julaymba Restaurant & Gallery