While Jesse surfed the famous Bali beach breaks in a late afternoon. I strolled around the beach where I crossed paths of sun worshippers’ and female hawkers selling exotic snacks out of straw baskets. The women were friendly and welcomed snap shots of their food. Fish rubbed with spicy sambal, along with a small fried fish and roti bread.
A mix veggies salad of sliced bitter melon, green beans, fried shallots and mashed avocados.
Sun worshippers on Seminyak beach.
We spotted fresh mackerels at the wet market and had to pick them up for dinner. They were 6 kuai, or a dollar a piece. Pick fish with clear eyes, bright red gills and smell of the ocean. Ask your fish monger to clean out the fish cavities.
Note: mackerel is strong-flavored and oily, but when cooked right it’s very tasty. We cooked the fish whole to keep it moist and tender. If you follow the recipe, you won’t be disappointed.
2 whole Chinese mackerel, about 14″ head to tail
2 cups shelled edamame (soy beans)
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 bunch cilantro
16 cherry tomatoes
5 red chilies
2 green chilies
3 limes
3 tablespoons milk
Hawaiian Alaea salt (but you can use any coarse salt)
Freshly cracked black pepper
Preheat oven to 400° F / 200° C.
Wash the fish and pat dry. Stuff fish cavities with roughly chopped onion and cilantro. Drizzle olive oil and squeeze lime over and inside the fish. Salt and pepper the fish.
Place the fish belly down on a prepared tin foil. Crunch the tin foil around the fish and form like a boat. Place 8 tomatoes, chopped chili peppers and lime wedges around each fish.
Place the boats on a baking sheet, roast in oven for 25 minutes. Squeeze the lime over the fish about three times during the roast.
In the mean time, boil edamame in a small pot of water until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain, then pour in a blender with butter, 2 tablespoons olive oil, milk, a small bunch of cilantro, salt and pepper. Puree until smooth.
Pull out the stuffed aromatics and debone the fish. Plate with roasted tomatoes, chili peppers, edamame mash and lime wedges. Spoon liquid from the tin foil boat over the fish, squeeze with more lime and serve immediately.
Jesse makes all different types and variations of tartare. This recipe was inspired after shopping at an upscale Japanese supermarket in Xintiandi. To get the best-quality salmon, go to GL Japan Plaza in Xintiandi or City Super at IFC in Pudong . 1/2 pound sushi grade salmon, tobiko (flying fish roe), a nice tasty soy sauce, touch of super-finely chopped ginger (try to pull out fibrous parts), chopped scallions and wasabiiiii!
You really can use any of the parts of the good sushi grade salmon to make this dish. What Jesse usually does is take the left over cuts from the prime cuts and uses a spoon to peel the meat from any unwanted parts (skin and tendon). If you flip over the spoon and scratch away the flesh from the skin and any other non-palatable parts you will be left with grade “A” tartare meat. If there are any pieces which are not consistent in size, chop all the salmon together to get uniform consistency.
1/2 pound sushi grade salmon
2 tablespoons tobiko, or flying fish roe
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon good olive oil
1 scallion, finely chopped
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, sliced and cut in long strips
1/2 teaspoon black sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon white sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon prepared wasabi
3 teaspoons soy sauce
A touch of finely chopped ginger
Chop the salmon into uniform size. In a medium bowl, mix the salmon, sesame oil, olive oil, chopped scallion, onion, sesame seeds, wasabi, ginger, soy sauce and lemon juice. Cover and chill until cold, about 30 minutes.
Thinly slice half of the cucumber at a diagonal, then cut the rest into long strips. Arrange the cucumber on a plate and top with salmon tartare. Garnish with flying fish roe, scallion and serve.
artisan foods 