Crispy Rockfish Filet over Dirty Rice and Malaysian Crab Curry
This masterpiece was created by Matt Bond
A note from Eric Keener:
Matt is a legendary chef that has been cooking since he was literally 5 years old. This recipe got him second place in the Catch & Cook Competition in 2019. It takes time and dedication to develop something this wonderful. He grew or foraged nearly 100% of all the ingredients in this recipe, including his own sea salt. This is pro level stuff right here. Read at your own risk.
Ingredients:
Garnish:
-1/4 cup chopped cilantro
-1/4 cup chopped Thai basil.
-1 tablespoon thinly sliced garlic toasted in oil until slightly brown then drained and cooled (garlic chips)
-1 teaspoon yuzu zest
Fish:
-One large rockfish, or similar tasting fish. scaled and filleted, skin left on fillets. Reserve the carcass. Reserve the liver and roe if present.
-Rice flour
-Salt
-Spice mix of turmeric, ginger, black pepper, smoked paprika, powdered garlic.
-Canola or other high temp oil for frying.
Rice:
-3 cups cooked quality short-grain white rice
-2 tablespoons olive oil
-Fish liver
-Fish roe
-1/2 cup sliced yellow onions
-4 garlic cloves minced
-The meat, chopped, from 10 small mussels that have been steamed until they open
-TBS fish sauce
-Zest and juice from one yuzu. (Substitute lemon or lime)
-Salt and pepper
Curry:
-Five fresh Thai lime leaves
-3 tablespoons peeled and rough chopped galangal.
-3 tablespoons spoons peeled and rough chopped ginger
-3 (or more depending on spice preference) Serrano chilies
-Two lemongrass stalks rough chopped.
-Two medium, ripe tomatoes chopped
-A head of garlic peeled and chopped
-Half a yellow onion peeled and chopped
-one fire roasted red bell pepper cut into strips
-The stems from one bunch of cilantro chopped.
-1/2 cup thai basil leaves.
-Powdered turmeric, paprika, cumin, black pepper, about a tablespoon each except only a large pinch of cumin.
-3 cans of coconut milk.
-1/4 cup olive oil.
-10 small live shore crabs (or three or four blue crabs or large prawns).
-1/4 cup light brown cane sugar
-Juice and rind of two yuzu (substitute ripe lime or Meyer lemon)
-1/2 pound fresh matsutake mushrooms cleaned and rough chopped. Another 1/2 pound cleaned and sliced thinly lengthwise.
-Five or six baby bok choy heads leafed apart
-1/2 sliced kabocha
-1/2 cup prepared bamboo shoots sliced lengthwise.
-2 cups cold water
Method:
General: Make the curry and rice before the fish. When they are done, cook the fish. Both curry and rice can be made ahead of time
Curry:
Add olive oil to a large sauce pan over high heat. When oil Is hot add ginger, galangal, lemongrass, onion, garlic, and chilies. Cook until garlic starts to brown. Add tomatoes, cilantro stalks, basil leaves, lime leaves, mushrooms, and fish carcass. Cook until tomatoes start to break down. Add crabs and stir vigorously. Cook until they turn pink then add the spices and sugar. continue to cook until caramelized. Add water and scrape the pan to loosen all the sauce stinking to the pan. Turn heat down to medium and add coconut milk, yuzu juice and zest. Let this simmer until reduce by one third. stir. When reduced, crush the crabs with a heavy kitchen tool. Blend with a strong hand blender, or carefully transfer the sauce into a food processor or blender and purée as fine as possible. Run the purée through a very fine strainer and pour it back into the pan. Over medium heat, Add kabocha, bell pepper, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and bok choy. When the mixture starts to simmer, turn it off and cover.
Rice:
Over medium flame, In a non-stick or seasoned cast iron pan, get the olive oil hot. Add onions and cook until caramelized Add garlic and cook until it starts to brown. Add roe, liver, and mussels and stir around in the pan until they have turned into a paste. Add fish sauce and let it reduce a little. Add the rice and stir around to completely incorporate all ingredients. Add yuzu zest and juice, salt and pepper. Continue to cook the rice mixture until it starts to brown a bit.
Fish:
Cut shallow hatch marks in the skin of the fish with a very sharp knife. Rub both sides of the fillets with the spice mixture and salt. Toss the spiced fillets in rice flower. Shake off excess flour. Put a tablespoon of canola oil in a heavy cast iron pan. Get it hot over high heat. When oil is hot, put the fish in the pan skin-side down. Turn the heat down to medium and leave the fillets alone until they look to be cooked half way through. Check to see that the skin is golden brown and remove fillets, salt them, and place them, skin-side down, on a plate with paper towels on it to drain excess oil. Once drained, very briefly set flesh side in the warm curry to finish cooking; probably less than a minute.
Plating:
In a large shallow bowl or deep plate, ladle some curry.
With a ring mold or by hand, make a mound of rice in the middle of the curry. Arrange some nice pieces of the vegetables from the curry around the rice. Place the fish fillets at and angle a top the rice. Ladle a little more curry over the fillets. Grate some yuzu zest on the dish and squeeze have a yuzu over the fillets. Garnish with cilantro, Thai basil, and garlic chips.
