Fire-baked pomfret with tom yum butter

For a showstopping restaurant-quality fish dish, try executive chef Rashedul Hasan's fire-baked pomfret with tom yum butter. For ease of preparation, use any brand of tom yum paste you can find from your local Asian grocery store for the accompanying butter!

• serves

  4

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Series. Cooking. Rated PG.

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The Cook Up with Adam Liaw

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Ingredients

• 250 g butter, divided 150 g and 100 g
• ⅓ cup tom yum paste (storebought)
• 1 whole pomfret, cleaned
• Spray oil
• 3 limes
• cooked jasmine rice, to serve

For the pickled starfruit

• ¼ cup vinegar
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 starfruit, cored, thinly sliced

For the chimichurri

• 1 small bunch mint, roughly chopped
• 1 small bunch coriander, roughly chopped
• 2 Thai green chillies, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp mustard oil
• 2.5 cm x 2 cm piece ginger, roughly chopped
• Salt and sugar, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C and a pizza oven to 400˚C.
2. To make the tom yum butter, in a small saucepan heat 150 g butter. Once half-melted, add the tom yum paste, then whisk until fully combined. Remove from the heat and set aside. Heat the remaining 100 g butter in a second cleaned saucepan and cook until browned (to the beurre noisette stage). Remove from the heat.
3. To make the pickled starfruit, in a medium bowl, combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt and whisk to combine, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the starfruit and mix to combine. Set aside to pickle.
4. To make the chimichurri, combine the ingredients in a food processor and blitz to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and sugar to your preference, then set aside.
5. Use a sharp knife to score the fish three sides on each sides. Transfer to a greased baking tray, then spray the fish with more oil. Place a second tray of hot water into the oven (this will help steam the fish), then bake the fish for 5 minutes, then turn and bake for a further 5 minutes.
6. Transfer the fish to the preheated pizza oven and bake for a further 2-3 minutes, rotating the fish to ensure it doesn’t burn. Spoon over a little tom yum butter, then flip the fish and bake for a further 2-3 minutes, rotating the fish again to prevent the skin from burning. Once the fish is crisp on both sides, remove from the pizza oven.
7. Transfer the fish to a large serving plate and spoon over the some tom yum butter and browned butter. Serve the fire-baked pomfret with tom yum butter with jasmine rice, drained pickled star fruit and chimichurri on the side.

Note

The pizza oven used for this recipe was a Gozney.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.