Gluten Free. Serves 4
This dish is inspired by the Moana Blue Cod and Minced Pāua Bundle.
Being able to order sustainably farmed minced pāua is a dream come true. And knowing the blue cod on your plate was caught with care in our pristine waters is also pretty dreamy.
Kia ora Moana. This recipe celebrates all that Moana stands for - sustainability and kaitiakitanga or guardianship. The dream being that in 100 years our great grandchildren will still be able to cook up a kai moana storm in the Ironclad Pan gifted down the generations from us to them.
THE BLUE COD
500 g Moana blue cod
½ c fine yellow cornmeal
1 T smoked paprika
Salt to taste
2 T butter
1 T olive oil
THE FRITTERS
200 g Moana minced pāua
Half a small red onion finely diced
Squeeze of lime or lemon juice
¼ c almond meal
Large handful fresh coriander, chopped finely
4 lime leaves, stem removed, chopped finely
2 eggs
1-inch fresh lemongrass finely sliced
Salt to taste
THE AIOLI
½ c good mayonnaise
6 whole limes leaves, stalks removed
3 T capers
3 cloves garlic sliced thinly.
3 T olive oil
THE BLUE COD PREP
Remove any excess moisture from the blue cod with a paper towel and dredge the fillets in a mix of the cornmeal, paprika and salt. Shake of any extra coating and put aside whilst you get everything else ready.
THE TARTARE PREP
Heat the olive oil in your Ironclad Pan on a medium high heat until the oil is hot. First fry the lime leaves till they are crunchy like a chip, but still holding their lovely green colour. Drain on a paper towel.
Next fry the capers until they puff up like little flowers. Lovely. Drain them with the lime leaves.
Lastly fry the garlic until it’s brown and crunchy and drain alongside the lime leaf and capers.
This all sounds like a bother but it takes no time at all I promise and the taste and texture is spectacular!
When cool, mix all the garlic, half the capers and crumble half the lime leaves into the mayonnaise and set aside.
THE PAUA FRITTERS PREP
Combine the pāua, onion, lemon juice, almond meal, coriander and lime leaves in a bowl. (It doesn’t need to be a big bowl)
In your nutribullet blitz the egg and lemongrass till the lemon grass looks like it has disappeared.
Stir egg mixture into the pāua mixture and season with a tiny bit of salt. The pāua is naturally salty so don’t over do it.
THE COOK UP
Reheat the oil left over from the lime leaf and caper fry up to a medium heat and drop dessert spoons of paua fritter mix into the oil in the shape of little pāua.
The egg will run a little but don’t worry about this! It will magically disappear when you carefully flip them. Flip after 1 - 2 minute and cook for a further minute.
Clean the pan.
***If you have two pans you can have the fish on the go in one as you cook the pāua fritters.
If you only have one pan, cook the pāua fritters first and keep warm on a paper towel in the oven as you fry the fish.
Melt butter and oil on a medium high heat in the pan and fry the blue cod till golden on each side. This won’t take long, you don’t want to overcook this most delicate of fishy delicacies.
TO SERVE
Arrange blue cod fillets on warmed plates, followed by the pāua fritters and a big dollop of tartar sauce. Sprinkle with remaining capers, a crumble of lime leaf and some micro greens.
And taste the Aroha.
