Fillet of red mullet with caramelised orange
Ingredients
(serves four)
4oz wild mushrooms (mixed)
3-4 shallots roughly chopped
Fresh bay leaf
Thyme trimmings and leaves
6fl oz semi-dry white wine
¼pt chicken stock
1 leek
1 carrot
½ small celeriac
1 courgette
3oz good sherry vinaigrette
Sesame oil
2 x 8-10oz red mullet (boned and filleted)
8oz French unsalted butter (hard and cubed)
Lemon juice
Salt and black pepper
8 clean-cut orange segments
Method
Clean and wash the mushroom heads and reserve. Put the stalks somewhere warm to dry out.
Gently sauté the shallots bay leaf thyme trimmings and dried mushroom stalks. Deglaze with the white wine. Reduce to a light glace then add the chicken stock and reduce again by half. Place to the side somewhere warm.
Peel and prepare vegetables by cutting into a two-inch julienne. All the vegetables remain raw apart from the leek which is blanched quickly in boiling salted water for one minute and refreshed.
Combine all the vegetables together moisten with the vinaigrette and season. Place to one side to marinate slightly.
Heat the sesame oil and add the mullet fillets skin down. Allow to colour gently. Repeat on the other side.
While the mullet is cooking return the sauce reduction to the stove and bring back to a gentle simmer. Whisk in the butter a few cubes at a time. When complete allow to barely simmer and pass through a muslin into a clean pan.
Add thyme leaves salt pepper and lemon juice.
To serve
Place an oval pile of the vegetables in the centre of the plate and lay the mullet fillets on top. Put the cleaned mushrooms into the pan that the mullet was cooked in and sauté quickly till just crisp. Take the fresh orange segments and caramelise on the edge of a griddle until a gentle caramel colour. Place two orange segments on top of each mullet with some mushrooms. Flash the plate quickly under the salamander and then serve the sauce around the plate.