Trout, cucumber, fennel

Ben Crittenden

Ben Crittenden

4th September 2020
Ben Crittenden

Trout, cucumber, fennel

720 min

On the menu at Stark and included in the recipe book due to launch in September 2020. 

Ingredients

Trout

  • 1 chalk stream trout
  • 250g coarse sea salt
  • 125g sugar
  • 1 lemon zest
  • 1 bunch dill
  • 1 tbsp juniper
  • 6 sheets nori seaweed

Squid crackers

  • 50g tapioca pearls
  • 600g water
  • 2 tbsp seaweed powder
  • 500ml vegetable oil

Cucumber

  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp lemon oil
  • small pinch salt

Fennel

  • 2 bulbs fennel
  • 1 small shallot
  • 1 lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar

Dashi

  • 1L water
  • 1 sheet kombu seaweed
  • 10g bonito flakes
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • pinch salt

To serve

  • sunflower shoots

Method

Trout

Fillet, pin bone and skin the trout and place in a deep tray. Blitz the salt, sugar, dill, juniper and lemon together, cover the salmon in the salt mix, clingfilm and leave for a day.
Wash the salt mix off, pat dry and split the fillet down the middle and the seaweed sheets around each half, then wrap in cling film tightly. portion in half inch slices.

Tapioca

Place the tapioca and water in a pan with the seaweed powder and bring to a simmer while stirring continuously. Keep on a low heat until the tapioca is translucent, soft and the mixture has thickened.
Transfer the mix to dehydrator and spread thinly. Dry for about 12 hours. Break the crisp sheets into smaller shards.
Heat the oil to 200C and fry one shard at a time when at temperature. They should puff up instantly. Season with salt.

Cucumber

Thinly slice on a mandolin then cut into 1 inch discs with a ring cutter. Dress with the lemon, oil, and salt when serving.

Fennel

Remove the green tops off the fennel. Keep the fronds aside for later, quarter the bulbs and remove the core.
Slice thinly on a mandolin, place in a vacuum pack bag then thinly slice the shallot and add to the bag. Add the remaining to the bag as well as the chopped fronds.
Seal the bag on full pressure and refrigerate until needed.

Dashi

Bring the water to boil, pour over the remaining ingredients, stir and let sit for 5 minutes then pass through a sieve and serve or chill and reheat gently when required.

To serve: add sunflower shoots.

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