Sumac-cured Arctic char with roasted sunchokes, Napa cabbage, sea bean pesto
Michael Moffatt, the executive chef at Beckta, Play and Gezellig, shares his recipe for sumac-cured Arctic char on CBC Radio's All in A Day this week.
All in A Day challenged Moffatt to come up with a recipe using an exotic ingredient of his choice for the food fantasy contest raising money for CBC's Project Give.
On Wednesday, he'll be Alan Neal's guest for D is for Dinner, where he will discuss how he uses samphire (a sea vegetable that's hard to find) in the recipe below.
Sumac-cured Arctic char with roasted sunchokes, Napa cabbage and sea bean pesto
Serves 4 as an appetizer
Ingredients for the char:
- 1 8 oz piece of Arctic char filet, skin removed.
- 2 oz kosher salt.
- 2 oz white sugar.
- 2 oz sumac juice (found in middle eastern supermarkets).
Directions:
- Combine salt, sugar and sumac juice to form a paste and coat Arctic char thoroughly.
- Leave to cure in the fridge overnight. When cured, gently scrape off excess paste and pat with damp paper towels to remove any remaining cure.
Ingredients for the rest of the dish:
- 1 tbsp. canola oil.
- 3 sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), sliced approximately ¼-inch thick.
- 3 leaves of Napa cabbage, cut into rounds with a 2-inch round cutter.
- ¼ cup samphire, chopped.
- 2 tsp. shallots, minced.
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- 1 bunch red watercress.
Directions:
- Heat canola oil in a non-stick fry pan to medium heat. Add sunchoke slices and cook until golden on both sides. Remove to paper towel to drain excess oil. Season with salt and pepper.
- Toss Napa cabbage in 1 tsp. olive oil and season with sale and pepper. Combine samphire, shallots and remaining olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Thinly slice Arctic char and gently roll each slice to make a rough rectangular shape.
- Layer char, sunchokes and cabbage and repeat with 3-4 slices of each per plate.
- Spoon pesto loosely over and around the ingredients.
- Garnish with red watercress.
