Seafood starters to kick off your Christmas meals
Get your festive feast off to a fishy start with these seafood starters from Ka Pao’s Sandy Browning, Ivan Tisdall-Downes, chef-owner of Native, and executive chef at The Beaumont Ben Boeynaems.
Grilled prawns with red nam jim
By: Sandy Browning, head chef at Ka Pao, Glasgow and Edinburgh
“For this recipe we use calamansi juice as it’s both sour and fragrant. It can be difficult to source in supermarkets, so at home you can use 10ml extra lime juice and 10ml fresh orange juice as an alternative.”
Ingredients:
For the red nam jim:
12g red chilli (whole)
12g caster sugar
Pinch of sea salt
2 cloves of garlic
24g lime juice
24g calamansi juice
37g fish sauce
1 red birds eye chilli, finely sliced
4g fresh coriander (with stems) finely sliced
Method:
In a dry wok or frying pan on a high heat, roast the whole red chillies until the skin blisters and the chillies soften.
Allow the chillies to cool slightly and remove the blistered skin.
Add the cooled red chillies into a blender, along with the garlic, salt and sugar and blend to form a paste.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients.
This sauce is perfect drizzled over freshly cooked prawns, white fish or shellfish.
Hand-dived scallops with ’nduja, tomatoes and aïoli
By: Ivan Tisdall-Downes, chef-owner of Native
“This has been on the menu since we first opened five years ago. It works just as well with cod, hake or monkfish.”
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
150g ’nduja
300g onion, diced
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
Handful of parsley, finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon
4 hand-dived scallops, shells reserved
Vegetable oil
40g butter
Sea salt
Fennel fronds and aïoli, to serve
Method:
1. Place a pan on a low heat and add the ’nduja, stirring frequently, until the fat has been rendered. Strain the fat through a sieve and return it to the pan.
2. Turn up the heat to medium. Add the diced onions and cook for about 15 minutes, until soft, being careful not to let them catch.
3. Once the onions are cooked, put the ’nduja back in the pan along with the tomatoes. Cook for a further 5 minutes until the tomatoes have begun to soften.
4. Add the chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice and keep warm while you cook the scallops.
5. When ready to serve, place a frying pan over a high heat and add a little vegetable oil. Cook the scallops for 2 minutes on one side until golden brown. Add a knob of butter and remove from the heat. Quickly flip the scallops over and let them cook in the residual heat of the pan for a further 2 minutes, basting them in the butter as you go. Season with sea salt.
6. Place a spoonful of the ’nduja and tomato mix in the bottom of each shell. Top with a scallop, and add a few delicate dots of aïoli. Decorate with fennel fronds before serving.
Citrus-cured bass
By: Ben Boeynaems, exec chef at The Beaumont
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
For the cured bass:
650/700g fillet from a 1.5kg sea bass, pin boned and skin removed
3 lemons
2 oranges
160g rock salt
320g sugar
15g coriander seeds
50g fennel, chopped finely
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
For the sorrel buttermilk:
50g sorrel
10g grated ginger
200g buttermilk
5g salt
Method:
Cooking the bass:
1. Blend the lemons and oranges together.
2. Add the sugar, chopped fennel, coriander and salt.
3. Cover the bass in the cure for 24 hours in the fridge.
4. Wash and dry.
5. Cut into 1.5mm thick slices.
Make the sorrel buttermilk:
1. Blend all the ingredients together.
2. Adjust the seasoning.
To serve:
1. Lay the bass on a plate and dress with the sorrel buttermilk.
2. Finish with diced clementine.
