This didn't turn out very well, but it looked good, and I think that the idea was solid, so I'm posting it. I decided to steam some beautiful rockfish, and serve it with a sauce made from nori (sushi wrappers), and, in my original conception, green stuff on top.

Initially I was inspired by Betty's fish with pineapple-lime salsa. For some reason when I read that, a vivid green salsa popped into my head, even though pineapple is yellow. But then the idea morphed in my head into a bunch of other forms and so this bears no resemblance to her dish. But the final dish here arose because I was intrigued by the idea of using various elements of a sushi meal. I imagined that eventually, at some dinner party, I would serve this on one side of a plate, and a maki roll containing mostly the same things on the other side. Nevertheless, this did not turn out well.

First of all, I overcooked the fish. I'm not very experienced at steaming fish yet, and I simply left it in too long. It was still decently moist, but it's shameful to compare it to sushi.

The green stuff on top of the fish was good enough. It ended up being blanched edamame, very gently sauteed with scallion, jalapeño, Thai basil, very finely minced ginger, and very finely minced lime zest (see, I kept the lime from Betty's dish!). I would have preferred shiso to Thai basil, but I have never seen shiso in any store, nor at the market. Anyway, served just warmed up with a touch of peanut oil and some sea salt, but not at all browned, this green stuff was pretty good, but it needed something to bind it all together. Next time I might toss it with a bright Thai basil (or preferably, shiso) vinaigrette first.

The nori gel was delicious--a much more concentrated example of the flavor than I've ever had, and it went very well with the fish. First I boiled a couple sheets of nori in a bit of water for several minutes (I would have preferred to boil it in dashi), then added a bit of agar agar (with agar, xanthan, and lecithin, I often go by feel these days rather than measuring them out) and whisked it in with the mixture still boiling. Then the nori and its broth went straight into a blender, which I let run for several minutes, and then intermittently for the next twenty minutes or so while it cooled, I briefly ran the blender to agitate the nori puree while the agar was setting it.

Eventually, after I plated the first plate, the gel fully set when it hit the cold plate. Not good. I meant for it to stay fluid. Apparently I didn't let it cool enough while agitating. So before plating the rest, I whisked the remainder of the sauce over a bowl of ice water until it was fully cooled, then re-warmed it a bit in a saucepan (but not so much to turn it back fully into a liquid). The next one was perfect.

Anyway, I plan on revisiting this at some point and tweaking the green stuff, and properly cooking the fish.

Posted by Barzelay on 2008/07/08 @ 11:36 | Comments (2) | Seafood

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