Australian · Main
Barramundi with Lemon Myrtle Butter
- Intermediate
- 20 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with acid holding everything up to the light, richness that coats and comforts, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 4 barramundi fillets, skin on, about 180 g each
- 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
- fine salt
- 80 g cold unsalted butter, diced
- 1 tsp dried lemon myrtle leaf, finely ground
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp cold water
- 1 finger lime, pearls scooped out
- sea salt flakes
The skills inside
Building an emulsionSautéing & the shallow fryThe bare simmer: holding liquid below the boil
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: dairy · fish
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Dry the skin hard with paper, salt it lightly ten minutes ahead, then blot again; any visible moisture steams instead of crisping.
- Lay the fillets skin down in a hot oiled pan and press each one flat with a spatula for the first 20 seconds, until it stops trying to dome, then leave them alone.
- Cook 4 to 5 minutes over medium heat until the flesh has turned opaque two thirds of the way up the side and the skin releases cleanly, then turn and give the flesh 45 seconds only. 5 min
- In a small pan bring the lemon juice and water to a bare simmer, take it off the heat and whisk in the cold butter piece by piece to a glossy emulsion, then stir the lemon myrtle in with the pan off the flame.
- Spoon the butter over the fish, scatter the finger lime pearls and finish with sea salt flakes.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Building an emulsion 40 recipes
- It visibly thickens as the fat goes in, heavier and more opaque than either part was alone, which is the emulsion announcing itself.
- At no point is there a pool of free fat sitting ahead of the work: fat went in no faster than it disappeared into the body.
- Glossy and homogeneous, with no slick floating on top and no visible droplets standing apart in it.
- It clings: coating what it is put on and holding a line, rather than running off and splitting into a puddle at the plate’s edge.
- It survives standing: minutes later there is no ring of weeping liquid underneath and no film of fat breaking out on the surface.
Where it goes wrong The fat went in faster than the shear could break it up, or the temperature drifted out of the range the method needs: it breaks into grease over a thin liquid, and whisking the broken thing harder does nothing. The rescue is a fresh base, with the broken sauce worked into it slowly, as if it were the fat.
Sautéing & the shallow fry 80 recipes
- Everything sits in a single layer with visible space between the pieces: nothing stacked, nothing touching, or the pan is too small for the quantity.
- The pieces move freely and keep moving, sliding across the pan rather than sticking and tearing when the pan is worked.
- Light even browning arrived at quickly: colour on most faces, not the deep crust of a sear and not grey.
- A thin film of fat with the food glossed by it: no pool left in the pan at the end, and nothing greasy on the fingers or the plate.
- Cooked through but still firm, having spent only a few minutes in the pan: anything that has gone soft has been in there too long.
Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once, the pan cooled, and the food released its water: what was meant to brown in three minutes stews for ten and comes out grey, slack and wet.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Vermentino or Sauvignon Blanc
- Also Right
- Albariño
- From the Taps
- Witbier
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus
Lean fish, bright acid, done: coastal whites built beside the same boats; the fresher the fish, the leaner the pour.
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