Buttered Hake Fillet

Adam Leyland Simpson

Adam Leyland Simpson

6th December 2018
Adam Leyland Simpson

Buttered Hake Fillet

Burnt kale, fennel croquettes, roasted vine tomatoes and cauliflower purée with a lemon vinaigrette

Ingredients

  • (Serves 4):
  • Buttered Hake:
  • - 4 hake supreme fillets
  • - 400g kale
  • - 12 vine cherry tomatoes
  • - 50g butter
  • - Oil
  • - Seasoning
  • Cauliflower Purée:
  • - Half cauliflower
  • - 1 shallot, finely diced
  • - 25g butter
  • - 185ml vegetable stock
  • - 185ml cream
  • Fennel Croquettes:
  • - 2 fennel bulbs
  • - 1½ Red Rooster potatoes
  • - 1 shallot
  • - 20g butter
  • - 2tsps fennel seeds
  • - 50g plain flour
  • - 1 egg beaten
  • - 100g panko breadcrumbs
  • - Finely diced parsley
  • Lemon Vinaigrette:
  • - 85g white wine vinegar
  • - 2tbsps Dijon mustard
  • - 1 pinch lemon balm
  • - 1 clove garlic
  • - 1tsp salt
  • - ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
  • - 170g olive oil
  • - 2tbsp fresh lemon juice and zest

Method

1. Score and season the hake fillets and place in the fridge to rest.
2. Pick and blanch the kale until soft, allow to drain then set aside.
3. For the cauliflower purée, caramelise the onions in the butter, add the cauliflower and again caramelise. Add the vegetable nage and simmer until cooked. Pass out the veg and keep separate, return the cauliflower stock to the stove, add the cream and reduce by half. Blitz the veg, adding enough liquid to make a good purée, pass through a chinois and season.
4. To make the fennel croquettes, bake the potatoes in the oven until soft and fluffy in the centre. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl, sweat the shallot and diced fennel in a little oil and butter until soft with a good pinch of fennel seeds. Add this to the potato with chopped parsley and season well. Roll out the mix into 20g balls and lightly roll in plain flour, then in beaten egg and finally in panko breadcrumbs. Place in the fryer for four minutes when you are beginning to plate the dish.
5. To make the lemon vinaigrette, blitz white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, lemon balm, garlic, salt and black pepper together. Slowly stream olive oil into the vinegar mixture while blitzing with the lemon juice. Adjust with seasoning if needed.
6. Pan fry the hake fillets skin side down in a hot pan with some oil for a few minutes. Then add 50g of butter and allow cooking for one minute. Turn the hake over and allow cooking for another few minutes until cooked, and keep basting the butter over it.
7. Remove the hake from the pan and allow to rest for a minute. In the same pan, begin to fry off the kale until it starts to crisp. Mix with some of the lemon vinaigrette, drain the kale and blow torch until crispy.
8. Begin to plate the dish by placing some cauliflower purée on the plate so you can sit the croquette on at 9 o’clock. Next place the blow torched kale at 12 o’clock and the pan fried hake sitting just behind the kale at 6 o’clock. Dot some more cauliflower purée around the plate and finish with a drizzle of vinaigrette and lemon balm.

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall and restrict access – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 12 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 500,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.