“The idea for this dish came to me whenJohnny, my fishmonger, gave us somewhelks to play with one day. They arrivedin the same delivery as some stonkinglyfresh mackerel. From this the seeds for thedish were sown. It has taken a little whilefor it to come together, but now I amextremely happy with it. It is a real chef’sdish with its contrasting flavours, texturesand temperatures”
Serves 8
Ingredients
Gayette of trotter and whelks
300g poached and shelled whelks
125g belly pork
70g lean pork
20g pork back fat
50g white breadcrumbs
1 egg
125g meat from poached pig’s trotter, finelydiced
65g finely chopped onions
juice of 1/2 lemon
60g olive oil
a sheet of caul, about 150g
50g unsalted butter
Mackerel
75g salt
50g light brown muscovado sugar
20g grated lemon zest
20g grated orange zest
10g coriander seeds, crushed
2g mustard seeds, crushed
6 black peppercorns, crushed
20 leaves of lemon verbena, shredded
3 mackerel, about 350g each, trimmed andfilleted
50g olive oil
Cardamom yoghurt
250g milk
8g dried skimmed milk
3 cardamom pods, slightly crushed
50g natural cultured yoghurt
Pickled mooli
1 medium mooli
300g orange juice
200g caster sugar
100g white wine vinegar
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
Gozmasio
50g peanuts, toasted and peeled
50g sesame seeds, toasted
13g salt
radish shoots, to garnish
Method
Gayette of trotter and whelks
Mince the whelks, belly pork, lean porkand back fat through a fine/mediummincing plate. Place in a mixing bowl.
Add the breadcrumbs and beat in the egg,then add the diced trotter, onions, lemonjuice and seasoning and mix well. To checkthe seasoning, take a small spoonful of themixture and shape into a flat burger, thencook in 10g of the oil in a small frying panfor 1 minute on each side. Remove fromthe pan and taste. Add more seasoning ifrequired.
Divide the mixture into 55g balls. (Youonly need 8, but it is difficult to make asmaller quantity of mixture; you couldshape all the gayettes and serve the rest onthe side.) Lay the sheet of caul on the worksurface. Wrap each ball in caul, cutting it asnecessary. Flatten the balls to resembleburgers and trim. Place on a tray and keepin the fridge until needed.
Mackerel
Put all the ingredients, except the mackereland olive oil, in a food processor and blitzto break down the aromatics a little. Placethe mackerel fillets skin side down on thework surface and sprinkle the flesh withthe aromatic mixture. Place one mackerelfillet on top of another, flesh sides in, andtightly wrap the pairs in cling film. Placeon a lipped tray and leave in the fridge for2 hours. After this curing time, rinsequickly under cold running water and patdry with a cloth. Keep in the fridge untilneeded.
Cardamom yoghurt
Place the milk in a saucepan and whisk inthe skimmed milk powder, then add thecardamom and bring to the boil. Removefrom the heat and cool down to 35ºC.
Strain through a fine sieve. Mix in thecultured yoghurt and place in a yoghurtmaker.
Leave for 8–10 hours. Keep theyoghurt in the fridge until needed.
Pickled mooli
Peel the mooli, then use a mandolin to cutit into long, thin strips. If you don’t have amandolin, then grate the mooli. Place in abowl of salted water and leave for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, bring all the remainingingredients up to the boil in a smallsaucepan. Cook for 1 minute, then removefrom the heat and leave to cool. Pour thepickling solution into a bowl. Drain themooli well and add it to the picklingsolution. Leave to marinate for about1 hour. When needed, drain.
Gozmasio
Put all the ingredients in a food processorand process to a coarse powder (it can befiner if you wish; I quite like a coarsetexture).
Finishing the gayettes
Heat the remaining oil in a large pan.Place the gayettes seam side up in thepan and cook for 3 minutes, until golden.
Flip them over, add the butter and continuecooking for 2 minutes. Remove from thepan to a tray and keep warm.
Finishing the mackerel
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan.
Place the mackerel fillets, skin side down,in the pan and cook for 1 minute. Flipthem over, then remove the pan from theheat and let the mackerel finish cooking inthe residual heat of the pan for a further1 minute. Remove from the pan and placeon a tray. Keep warm.
Serving
Split each mackerel fillet lengthways, thencut the pieces across in half. Make 2 swipesof cardamom yoghurt on each plate, thenplace a cross of mackerel on it. Put agayette at the opposite side of the plateand add a small mound of the gozmasio.
Place a third piece of mackerel on top ofthe gayette and garnish the plate with asmall mound of the drained mooli and theradish shoots.
Recipe feature in 'Beyond Essence' published by Absolute Press; Bloomsbury Publishing Plc