Sous vide Cornish skate wing

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For variety in textures and flavours, this colourful fish recipe from Michael Wignall is hard to beat: succulent white fish is paired with creamy velouté, tangy orange curd and crunchy sunflower granola. With various components cooked sous vide and steamed the timings of this recipe are a little tricky - it’s worth putting in some careful planning before you begin.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Orange oil

Orange curd

Skate

Borlotti velouté

Dill foam

Chicory

Sunflower and oat granola

To plate

  • sunflower leaves
  • sunflower sprouts
  • freeze-dried mandarin

Equipment

  • Sous vide equipment
  • Steamer
  • Blender
  • Muslin cloth
  • Silicon baking mat
  • Hand blender
  • Piping bags

Method

1
Begin by preparing the orange oil. Seal the orange zest, thyme, pomace oil and a pinch of salt in a vacuum bag and cook in a water bath at 68 °C for 4 hours. Leave to cool, then pass through a fine sieve
2
Meanwhile, prepare the the orange curd by caramelising the sugar in a small saucepan until golden, then add the orange juice and bring to the boil until a caramel is formed. Cut the oranges in half and place into a vacuum bag along with the caramel. Vacuum and steam in the oven at 100°C for 2 hours - if your oven doesn’t have a steamer setting a regular steamer will work just as well . After 2 hours remove the curd mixture from the vacuum bag, blitz in a blender until completely smooth and then add the butter until emulsified
3
For the skate, dissolve the sugar and salt in the water to create a brine and place the skate in the solution for 2 hours. After this time remove the skate from the brine, place into a vacuum bag and cook in a water bath at 50°C for 15 minutes. Leave to cool, then remove the skate from the bag and take off the bone. Pat dry with kitchen paper and set aside until required
4
To make the borlotti veloute put the beans into a large saucepan and cover with chicken stock. Place the bacon, thyme, bay leaf and garlic into a muslin bag and add to the beans. Cook until completely soft, about 1 hour. Blitz in a blender until completely soft then add the buttermilk. Season to taste and reserve
5
For the granola, boil oil, molasses and honey in a pan. Meanwhile, toast all the dry ingredients in the oven at 150⁰c for 5 mins. Pour the toasted ingredients over the sugar mix and continue to cook for fifteen minutes, stirring every 3 minutes or so. Spread out on a silicone baking mat and leave to cool
6
To prepare the dill foam, sweat the shallot, garlic and dill in butter in a pan until softened. Add the fish stock and cream, stir to combine and bring to the boil. Leave to infuse until cool then pass through a fine sieve. Add the lecithin and the lemon juice to the pan and stir, leaving in the pan until ready to serve
7
For the chicory, dissolve the citric acid in the stock. Split the chicory in half lengthways and place into a vacuum bag with the stock. Cook in a water bath for for 12 minutes at 92°C
8
Dust the skate with flour and fry in a non-stick pan over a medium heat with a little oil until beginning to colour. While the fish is cooking, warm the dill mixture and blitz with a hand blender to create a foam
9
Place a piece of skate in the center of each plate and scatter the granola around the fish. Pipe dots of orange curd on the plate and drizzle over the orange oil. Place the chicory on top of the fish then swirl around the veloute, topping with a couple of generous spoonfuls of the dill foam. Garnish with sunflower leaves, sprouts and the freeze-dried mandarin. Serve immediately
  • sunflower leaves
  • sunflower sprouts
  • freeze-dried mandarin
First published in 2015

Michael Wignall could have been a professional BMX biker. It was a fortunate day for foodies everywhere when he decided instead to work under legendary Northern chef Paul Heathcote.

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