Pan Roasted Tasmanian White Fish, Snow Peas, Veloute and Herbs - Recipe by Chef Nick Raitt

Ingredients

Half-bottle sparkling wine or Champagne
1.5L fish or vegetable stock
250mL pure cream
100 g crème fraiche
4 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
100 g sliced purple shallots
1 lemon- juiced
1.5k g blue eye Trevalla or Stripey Trumpeter
100 g fresh baby peas
1 punnet pea tendrils
Orecchiette pasta
A mixture of any soft herbs- chervil, dill, chives, tarragon or parsley

Method

For the sauce:

In a heavy based saucepan, sweat the shallots until soft. Add the peppercorns, bay leaf and sparkling wine and boil until the wine has cooked down until about 1/4 of the original volume, add the stock and cook down until it is around 1/4 of its original volume.

Add the cream and cook until half of this volume. Pass through a fine sieve, whisk in the crème fraiche and lemon juice, taste and season with sea salt to finish, then allow to cool to room temperature, keep whisking as it cools so it does not form a skin on top.

Preheat your oven to 180 C.

Drain your 50 g of onions and cut them into 8 wedges per onion, then using your fingers gently break the pieces apart so that you can sprinkle it over the dish. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it will be part of many flavours and textures. Set aside until ready to plate.

Take the top off the snow peas and pull off the stringy bit down the side and cut in half crossways. Pod your fresh peas, or defrost your frozen ones.

For the fish, we try to get locally caught Blue Eye Trevalla or Stripey Trumpeter, but you could use any fresh white fish. If necessary, cut the fillet down the centre to remove the bones, then cut it into portions of around 150 g for a main course size.

Season your fish with sea salt, then in some olive oil, pan fry in a nonstick fry pan on medium to high until you have a nice golden finish on one side, remove the fish to a baking paper lined oven tray and pour any juices or oil over the top.

Keep the fish on the bench until the pasta is halfway cooked. Then, cook the fish in the oven until it’s just white all the way through, it will only take a couple of minutes to cook and is something you need to do just before serving.

For the pasta, use the best quality orecchiette pasta you can get your hands on, it will make a difference and it contributes to the texture of the dish. Bring 2 litres of water to the boil and add 40 g of table salt.

Carefully put your pasta in, and boil for 1 minute less than the recommended cooking time, as it will keep cooking. Once the timer has gone off, gently drain the pasta and toss with some butter and a little sea salt.

In a separate small pot of boiling water, blanch the snow and garden peas for 20 seconds in salted water, remove and toss with sea salt and good olive oil.

Put the veloute back on the heat and bring to a simmer.

Once the fish is ready, place the fish into individual shallow serving bowls and ladle over 2-3 tablespoons of the sauce, scatter the pasta around. You still want to still see some of the fish if you can, reserve some of the sauce in a jug so that you can add more if you like.

Next, scatter the peas, pickled onion, tendrils and herbs. Be sure to serve this dish with crusty sourdough, as your guests won’t want to leave any of the sauce.

Recipe provided by Josef Chromy Restaurant