Twice a week we receive Tai snapper from New Zealand. You might think that buying fish from so far away you might not get a really fresh product, but when you open the box you realize it is really pristine. Today distances do not really matter. This Tai snapper is a sustainable fish and part of the sea bream family. Tai means good fortune in Japanese and it is eaten for celebrations in Japan. The fish is killed using the Ike technique. Ike means quickly, then it rests in a brine to clean it.
Now we use the Tai snapper in a cooked preparation. The fish is scaled and dressed, then filleted. We remove the skin from the flesh and brine it in a salted water solution to firm the flesh. During service each portion is first steamed to order for a couple of minutes at 85 degrees Celsius. Then it is butter poached at a 60 degrees Celsius until the center of the meat reaches 50 degrees Celsius for medium rare. We season the fish with Murray River salt, then plate it.
Interesting to see a NZ fish on your menu, Im pastry chef at a NZ fish speciality restaurant, we go through soooo many of these each day. summer up to 170 in our brasserie and 40 in the restaurant.
Posted by: Brian | August 28, 2010 at 09:44 PM