Recipe: Sustainable White Fish Ceviche w/ Edamame (or Sugar Snaps)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Ceviche is a great way to eat fresh fish, and in a time when sustainable harvesting habits are important, this technique and its flavours lend themselves very well to sustainable fish stocks. Ceviche has it's roots in Peruvian cuisine. For this dish I've taken a little Asian influenced cuisine too!

If you can't fine edamame, sugar snaps go well too!

ingredients (serves 6-8)

Whack the stone with a knife.

for the white fish ceviche  

1 lemons (juice & zest)

2 limes (juice)

100g coconut cream

1/2 thumb of ginger (peeled & finely grated)

15g chives (finely chopped)

15g coriander (torn)

350g white fish 1cm dice (pollock, river cobbler, bream, pouting or a mix)

1 avocado peeled, small dice (spray with lemon juice to stop oxidation)

1 tbsp fish sauce (season to taste)

for the edamame

500g edamame

smoked salt flakes (Maldon salt )

for the garnish

fennel fronds for garnish 

and some of the chives (or garlic chives if you can get them - supermarket)

Turn the knife to loosen & remove the stone.

method

ceviche

Prepare the ingredients. See ginger tip what could go wrong?

Mix the fish cubes in with the chopped herbs, store in a sealed container in the fridge for 2 hrs at least.

Infuse the coconut cream with the ginger in a pot: bring to boil then simmer. Reduce the mix by at least a 1/4. (A creamy consistency is required since the sauce loosens considerably when the fish and lime are mixed in.) Leave rest off the heat until required.

As your last guest arrives ceviche the fish with citrus 

Cut a grid into the avocado.

for 20min (15 - 45mins is fine).

edamame

Drop the edamame (shell on) into a pot of salted boiling water for 4 minutes.

Drain in a colander, and put into a bowl of cold water (so they retain their colour). Put aside until needed.

thinking ahead

Prepare all the ingredients but don't combine until your last guests arrives or not too long before otherwise the fish will be white all the way through instead of having a gorgeous translucent centre.

The edamame can be cooked early, refreshed and stored in the fridge.  Then heated in boiling water for 1 minute to serve hot when needed.

what could go wrong? (TIPS)

After peeling my ginger, only half of it is left!

And push out the pieces . . simple.

TIP: Try peeling ginger with a spoon, I know what your thinking but it works really well! Turn the spoon upside down and scrape it along the surface of the ginger - the skin will come away with very little effort, and very little waste!

My avocados look rank! 

TIP: coat them in a little lemon juice after you've cut them up to stop them oxidising.

My fish is cooked all the way through! 

TIP: Don't make the pieces too small, they will cook faster in the lime juice, and don't leave them in the lime for more than 45mins.

to serve

Add the edamame to some boiling water for 1 minute then drain through a colander, serve in a large bowl and sprinkle with smoked salt.

Drain the lime from fish and mix it with the coconut sauce and avocados, season with lime juice, and fish sauce to taste.

Place the ceviche into serving bowls, garnish with chives and fennel fronds, serve with chopsticks and a spoon. (that should entertain!)

techniques used

Ceviche, refreshing, peeling ginger

Experiment: Lemon Biscotti (Angel Eyes, and Hell Boy pt II)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab  (check here for Angel Eyes, and Hell Boy pt I)

This recipe is a great way to introduce kids to cooking and what a result! A fantastic biscuit that looks hard to make but is simplicity itself!

At this point in my culinary career I'd not really made biscotti before, so it was basically a test run. Now I don't know about anyone else, but when I'm doing test runs I like to have tight control over ingredients, quantities, temperatures, times, shelves, pan types, etc. In other words, I want the result, be it a cricket bat, or the lightest crumbliest sublime biscuit, to be reproducible if nothing else!

So off I went to my friends in the country. What better fun than to make some biscotti with the kids? Or so I thought!

I prepped up the ingredients and got in my master sous chefs for a baking bonanza!

I'd forgotten how excitable youngsters can be - before I knew what was going on there were all sorts of things flying into the mixing bowl at completely inappropriate times, mixing spoons, nuts, what this? baking powder? let's have some! bosh!

Once I gave in to the concept that making biscotti with 2 youngsters, was NO place for the ordered kitchen mind of the ferdie, and just went with it, I had a great time and so did they! 

 

And I found out that this recipe will always give you something resembling a biscotti no matter what you do! It might also resemble a cricket bat, but hey, it'll be an edible cricket bat . . he . . he!

What's all this mess? -  err, uh, oh. . .

Uh ooh!! "Has he seen us?"

Meanwhile . . . back at the lab, a few test runs later . . .

ingredients (Serves 26 - 3 loaves)
150C/40m, slice loaves then 180C/15m turn once

for the lemon biscotti
35g butter
2 lemons (juice and zest)
3 eggs + 2 yolks
300g caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder (15ml)
550g self raising flour
130g pecans
130g almonds

apparatus
baking tray
wire rack
microplane
juicer (manual is fine - or a fork)

lemon biscottis
Preheat oven G2 / 150C / 300F
Melt the butter and add the lemon juice and zest, warm until the butter is completely melted and set aside to infuse.

Mix the baking powder and flour, then add the nuts and mix further. You can use whichever nuts you like best.
In a separate bowl whisk eggs and sugar until lightly aerated, then add them to the flour and nut mixture. Stir in well.

You're now ready to make and bake the loaves - which is how the biscotti start life!
Divide the mix into 3 loaves and place in the oven on a lined baking sheet for 40 minutes.

Once they're golden, remove them from the oven on to a wire rack to cool. Turn the oven up to G4 / 180C / 350F. 

Once cool enough to handle cut the loaves into biscotti (1/2 inch / 1cm thick slices) and return to the oven on a lined baking tray. Bake them for 15 minutes turning once. It'll take less if you have fan assist on!

Happy munching! Don't forget if you put these in an airtight container they'll last for at least a week, and you can freeze the loaves and bake off a batch on the weekend or when guests come to visit; they suffuse the kitchen with an irresistible aroma.

what can go wrong?
I've got a lumpy dough! Grumos! As the spanish would say!! To avoid a lumpy mixture put your powders in the bowl and make a well. Using a wooden fork (better than a spoon since the liquids can flow through it) mix the flour in a circular motion, going around the outside of the liquid, combining it in bit by bit until it's one big, smooth mix.