WEEKEND RECIPE from Shears Yard: Ceviche of hake with oyster mayonnaise, sea vegetables and deep fried oyster

By admin October 18, 2014

[Photo – Shears Yard by Tom Joy, www.tomjoy.co.uk]

Every fortnight, TSOTA features one of its top recipes for all you hungry folks out there to try. It might be courtesy of a local chef, foodie or from one of our avid followers or contributors.

If you are a chef, baker or just cook for fun, and would like to contribute a recipe to this feature, do get in touch or tweet us @TSOTArts (#weekendrecipe)

This week’s recipe comes from Jamie Clinton, Executive Chef at Arts Cafe & Shears Yard

Ceviche of hake with oyster mayonnaise, sea vegetables and deep fried oyster

“I’ve tried to do a recipe which is a little bit different but still really easy for people to do at home. It’s also a recipe I really like to do.

We have variations of it on the specials board at Arts Cafe from time to time and this particular one went down really well at a tasting event we did at Shears Yard recently.

Ceviche is a great way of eating fresh fish and is becoming quite popular at the moment. I think people are a little scared of what they consider to be raw fish, so hopefully this will help! Enjoy as a great starter or light salad.”

Ingredients (serves 4):

300-400g piece of fresh hake fillet (Skinned, pin boned and thinly sliced)
5 fresh oysters
4 lemons
1 ripe tomato (roughly chopped)
Small handful fresh parsley (roughly chopped)
1tsp white pepper corns
1 bay leaf
Selection of sea herbs such as sea aster, oyster leaf or salty fingers. (There are quite a lot of foragers out there to get these from but it is worth a day out at the coast to get your own!)
200ml rapeseed oil
Splash of white wine vinegar
100g plain flour
25g corn flour
200mls cold water

Method:

The key to this dish is fresh fish and oysters; they must be fresh that day, not only for safety when eating but to taste them at their very best. If you can’t get hake it will work with any meaty white fish; cod, bass, monkfish etc, experiment and see what you prefer.

Start by preparing the marinade for the fish. Squeeze the lemon into a bowl with the tomato, parsley, bay leaf, pepper corns and a little sea salt, give it a good mix and set aside so the flavours can infuse.
Next make the batter, simply whisk the flour, corn flour and water together and leave to rest.
To make the oyster mayonnaise shuck one of the oysters into a high sided bowl and add a little white wine vinegar. Blend the oyster and vinegar with a stick blender until smooth and starting to froth a little, slowly drizzle in the rapeseed oil as if making a mayonnaise.
Once all the oil has been emulsified check the seasoning (it may need a squeeze of lemon but no salt) and put in the fridge (make sure the mayonnaise is used on the day it is made).
Wash the sea herbs and keep in the fridge until needed.
Ten minutes before serving strain the marinade over the fish and make sure it is completely submerged, gently stir the fish pieces so that they are completely coated and put back in the fridge while you assemble the plates.
Spoon a few dots of the mayonnaise onto the serving plate along with a section of the sea herbs. Shuck the remaining oysters into a bowl with a little flour to coat, then dip in the batter and deep fry for 2 mins until crispy, remove from the fryer and drain on kitchen paper.
By now the acidity in the marinade will have cooked the fish. Gently take out the pieces of hake and arrange between the dressed plates.
Finish off with the crispy oyster and enjoy as a great starter or light salad.