That is an applicable recipe for the primary weblog I’m writing after my journey to Australia (and a little bit of Thailand), as this was impressed by a dish I had in restaurant Insurgent Insurgent in Canberra in the course of the Australian wine tour in 2023. Kingfish (often known as Yellowtail or Hamachi) is a flavorful fish that is superb when it’s uncooked (which is why it’s used usually for sushi and sashimi). Right here it’s mixed with a fennel salad and orange (at Insurgent Insurgent it was blood orange), marinated anchovies (known as boquerones in Spanish, I shared the recipe for making them at house lately), and garnished with sumac. Sumac is the dried and crushed bitter fruits from a shrub of the identical identify, common as a spice within the Center East. It doesn’t solely present a pleasant tart taste to the dish, but in addition a dramatic coloration. With this introduction you may most likely work out how you can make this dish your self, however here’s a recipe anyway.
Elements
For 4 serving as an appetizer
- 200 grams (7 oz) uncooked sushi-grade kingfish (yellowtail, hamachi) with out pores and skin
- 12 marinated anchovies (or sardine strips) from this recipe, drained
- 1 fennel bulb
- 4 or 8 ‘supremed’ orange sections, juice reserved
- good additional virgin olive oil
- salt
- sumac
Directions
Slice the kingfish and seaseon the slices of kingfish with salt on either side. Permit the fish to remedy within the salt within the fridge for no less than one hour.
Peel an orange, eradicating all of the white pith, after which slice the segments from between the membranes. The skinless orange segments you get hold of in that manner are known as supremes. Catch the orange juice that can drip from the orange throughout this course of for the dressing. Reserve the orange sections and juice in a bowl. Use solely the delicate ‘leaves’ of the fennel and slice in skinny strips in opposition to the grain. Place the fennel slices in chilly water (with ice cubes if the water shouldn’t be already chilly) and refrigerate for no less than an hour to permit the fennel to crisp up. This may all be finished prematurely.
To serve, drain the orange sections and reserve the juice.
Drain the fennel, pat it dry with paper towels, and gown the fennel with good additional virgin olive oil, salt, and the orange juice. Toss to combine and style to regulate the dressing if wanted.
Begin by arranging a layer of fennel on every plate, adopted by a layer of kingfish.
Organize the orange sections and boquerones on high, then sprinkle generously with sumac. You could possibly additionally add the orange final, to keep away from getting sumac on the orange. Serve without delay. The dish shouldn’t be served instantly from the fridge, however it needs to be barely cooler than room temperature.
Wine pairing
This isn’t a simple dish to pair wine with due to the sweetness of the orange. At wine pairing dinners at my home we tried the dish with the next wines:
- Ceraudo Grisara 2023, Pecorello, Calabria, Italy: excellent pairing, however the wine is barely too recent for the dish
- Ippolito 1845 Pecorello 2023, Calabria Italy: wonderful pairing (identical grape selection because the earlier wine, however with decrease acidity)
- Markus Molitor Kinheimer Hubertslay Auslese** 2017, Riesling, Mosel, Germany: excellent pairing, however the wine barely overpowers the dish
- Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay 2022, Adelaide Hills, Australia: not a very good pairing, as a result of the wine grow to be bitter with the dish
- Terrazas de los Andes Chardonnay 2022, Tupungato, Mendoza, Argentina: wonderful pairing
- Penfolds Max’s Chardonnay 2023, Adelaide Hills, Australia: excellent pairing, however the wine does get a bit bitter with the orange
So one of the best pairings have been medium bodied, considerably fruity, and never an excessive amount of acidity.
