I am a native of Barna and grew up with foraging on the beach there with my grandmother. This is where my love of using local produce stems from. I head out every morning to forage on the beaches near The Twelve.
I chose this recipe as it was one I cooked last year for the Galway Oyster Festival. Sadly it can’t go ahead this year, so here is my nod to the festival. I am looking forward to seeing it return in 2021.
Martin O’Donnell is the executive chef at The Twelve hotel in Barna, Galway.
Pan roasted cod loin, crunchy nori, warm poached oyster and dillisk sauce
Serves four
Ingredients
800g fresh cod loin, pin boned (skin on)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
250g foraged fresh nori, or fresh seaweed, washed (optional)
300g gluten-free flour
Salt
10g citric acid powder (available online at asiamarket.ie), or vinegar powder
12 Galway oysters, opened
1 shallot, finely diced
50g best quality butter
50ml white wine
100ml cream
250g cold diced butter
1 tsp freshly powdered dillisk powder
Method
1 Toss the fresh nori in gluten-free flour and then deep fry at 180 degrees Celsius for one minute, remove from fryer and season with salt, and vinegar powder or citric acid (if you don't have it, leave it out), then allow to cool.
2 To start the sauce, cook the shallot in a knob of butter for few minutes until tender on a low heat, add the wine and reduce by half then add the cream and reduce by half.
3 Remove from the heat and whisk in the cold diced butter slowly until it blends in with the emulsion and creates a lovely sauce consistency, similar to cream. Do not reheat this as it will split. Keep it in a warm place.
4 Shuck the oysters and add them to the sauce at this stage, including all juices.
5 Add a teaspoon of powdered dillisk and taste; add a tiny squeeze of fresh lemon juice if you wish.
6 Always try to buy fish from a good quality fishmonger and ask them to scale the fish so the skin will get nice and crisp. To cook the fish, place it skin side down on a hot pan (ovenproof ) with two tablespoons of vegetable oil for three minutes, or until the skin is crisp. Place it into a hot oven for approximately five minutes with the flesh side up.
7 Remove it from the oven and turn it over so the skin is up.
8 To plate, place the fish on the plate and drizzle with the sauce and the oysters (three per person )
9 Top with crunchy nori and enjoy with a nice glass of white wine.
Kitchen Cabinet is a series of recipes from chefs who are members of Euro-Toques Ireland, who have come together during the coronavirus outbreak to share some of the easy, tasty things that they like to cook and eat at home #ChefsAtHome
