Pan-Fried Stone Bass with Burnt Leek Puree, Crab Meat & Pickled Shallots

Shallots:

1. The first thing you need to do is to pickle your shallots. Cut the shallot rings from the shallots and salt for 30 minutes to extract any moisture.
2. Put your red wine and red wine vinegar into a pan with the fennel seeds, coriander seeds, bay leaf and garlic and bring to the boil.
3. Pour over your shallots after you have washed the salt off them and set to the side. Ideally, the shallots should be left to pickle for 3-4 days.

Crispy Leeks:

1. Finely slice the green part of 1 leek and dust with potato starch.
2. Deep fry at 170°C for 3-4 minutes until crispy. Drain on paper towel and set aside for later.

Burnt Leek Puree:

1. Cut the leeks into 2 inch chunks and heat a large pan up with a little vegetable oil.
2. Add your leeks so they are uniformly frying on one side. Fry until burnt before frying them on their opposite side until burnt.
3. Transfer to a sauce pan and add your chicken stock and water and reduce the leeks until they are tender enough to blitz into a puree.
4. Blitz in a food processor on full speed for at least 2 minutes (you may need to loosen with a little more chicken stock before blitzing).
5. Add salt and sherry vinegar to taste. You want to add just enough vinegar to counteract the bitterness of the puree.
6. Pass the puree through a fine sieve to make it nice and smooth.

Baby Leeks:

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil with plenty of salt and blanch your baby leeks for 30 seconds.
2. Let them cool at room temperature so they are ready to be chargrilled later.

Crab:

1. Pick your white crab meat and discard any shell, keeping the meat in nice big chunks. Set aside.

Chive Emulsion:

1. Blanch your chives in salted water for 20 seconds and plunge into iced water straight away.
2. Squeeze out the excess water and blitz with the rapeseed oil adding a little salt before passing through a fine cloth so you are left with a bright green oil.

Stone Bass:

1. Season your stone bass with salt and place in a hot pan with a little vegetable oil.
2. When you can see the skin starting to crisp up a little, turn the heat down low and leave to cook for a good 2 minutes.
3. Add a little cold, salted butter, turn the heat up and cook for a further few minutes. The skin should be crisping up, turning golden brown.
4. When you have your crispy skin on the bass, flip it over and flick the foaming salted butter over the fish. This will create a little buttery oven for the fish and lock all the flavour in.
5. Continue flicking the butter until the inside of the fish is warm. To test the temperature, insert a metal spike into the middle of the fish and leave for 10 seconds before placing it on your lip. If it’s warm, the bass is ready to rest; if it’s cold it needs to cook a little longer.
6. When warm in the middle, take the bass out and place on a piece of kitchen roll to rest whilst you are preparing the rest of the dish.

To Serve:

1. Warm up the leek puree and swipe along the bottom of the plate.
2. Warm your crab meat gently in a pan with a touch of salted butter and place on the puree.
3. Place the stone bass on top of the crab.
4. Chargrill the leeks and arrange on and around the bass.
5. Add a few of your pickled shallot rings around the dish.
6. Sprinkle a few of the crispy leeks on top.
7. Drizzle the chive emulsion around the edge of the plate.