Olive-crusted pollack with tomato butter sauce
Ingredients
(Serves four)
4 x 180g pollack fillets
For the crust 100g butter
Cayenne pepper
1/2 loaf white bread, as breadcrumbs
125g black olives, roughly chopped
35g parsley, chopped
2tsp thyme, chopped
2tsp basil, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to season
For the cherry tomato butter sauce
250g cherry tomatoes
35g unsalted butter
Salt and white pepper to taste
Method
For the crust, first make a beurre noisette by whisking the butter over a medium heat until it starts to foam and turn a nutty brown colour. Stop the cooking by adding the lemon juice.
Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl, pour the hot beurre noisette over and mix carefully. Chill in the fridge. When the mixture is chilled, form into a ball like a dough and roll out between two sheets of silicone paper to 4mm thick. Chill until needed.
For the cherry tomato butter sauce, purée the tomatoes in a liquidiser, pass through a fine sieve, place half the juice in a pan and reduce by half. Add the other half of the juice and warm through without boiling.
Incorporate the butter with a hand blender and season. Cut out a piece of crust the same size as the pollack fillet, remove silicone paper and place atop the fish.
Preheat oven to 200°C and bake the fillets for 10-15 minutes, depending on thickness. Finish under the grill. Serve with the tomato butter sauce with wilted spinach and asparagus.
Simon Gueller, head chef, Box Tree restaurant, Ilkley, West Yorkshire