Poached sea trout, Jersey Royal and sea beet crush, nettle vinaigrette, by Madalene Bonvini-Hamel
Ingredients
(Serves 10 -12)
For the poached sea trout 2.8kg whole sea trout, scaled and gutted
Sea salt
3tbs olive oil
For the Jersey Royal and sea beet crush 300g Jersey Royal potatoes, washed
3tbs olive oil
1tbs grain mustard
150g sea beet, shredded
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
For the nettle vinaigrette 80g nettles
50ml fish stock
2tsp Dijon mustard
2tbs cider vinegar
100ml groundnut oil
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Method
First, prepare the sea trout. Keeping the fish whole, remove the head and all fins. Fillet in a single piece but don't cut into portions at this stage. Roll the fish up in clingfilm, forming a barrel. Let the fish rest in the fridge for one hour.
Cutting 100g portions about 1cm thick, slice through the clingfilm. You should get about 10-12 portions out of one large fish.
Place each piece, still with the clingfilm holding the portion together, into a vacuum pouch; add a dash of olive oil to each bag and seal on hard vacuum. Preheat a water bath to 40e_SDgrC and poach the trout for 12 minutes.
To make the vinaigrette, fill a medium-sized saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. Blanch the nettles for two minutes. Drain and refresh in iced water.
Drain and blend the blanched nettles with the fish stock to make a smooth purée, using a powerful blender. Add the mustard, vinegar and seasoning while blending. Slowly incorporate the oil to form an emulsion. Keep refrigerated until needed.
To prepare the Jersey Royal crush, put the potatoes in a medium-sized saucepan with salted water and boil until tender to the knife point. Drain and peel them while they are still warm and crush using a fork. Stir in the oil and mustard and season to taste.
Bring a second medium-sized saucepan filled with salted water to the boil over a high heat and blanch the sea beet for 30 seconds. Refresh in iced water. Fold the blanched sea beet into the crushed potatoes and keep warm until serving.
