Roasted cobia, green tomato juice and mollusk
This week on the tasting menu we featured a very simplistic, fresh fish course using the new season tomatoes. These tomatoes hold high acidity and have not experienced real temperatures for them to ripen and expel their natural sugars yet. So we juice them add some basil and hang the mixture resulting in a green tomato juice that's very clean and unassuming.
The fish is cobia, a member of the kingfish family also known as black kingfish. It is a very firm fleshed fish when raw with a high fat content which helps keep it moist when roasted. Also a seasonal fish which is plentiful at the moment.
We serve a little braise of mollusks cooked in their juices spooned over the top of the fish. For this we used periwinkles or sea snails. As I've not used these large Australian varieties before it was abit of fun discovering the best way to use them. They can be very tough and gritty- not for the BBQ.
We brine the snails in an acidic solution for 2 days before cooking to tenderise and clean them.
We also served some beautiful diamond shell clams and finished the dish with some basil oil.
A taste of things to come as the weather warms up.
2010 Frank Cornelissen MunJebel Rosso 7 VA, Sicilia, Italia
Frank C is what we in the wine industry describe as a "mad chiller". His wines are pure and unrefined. This wine in particular is 100% Nerello Mascalese - a Sicilian native varietal. The name Munjebel has a literal translation of Mountain of Fire… The vineyard is located on Mt. Etna, a still active volcano in Sicily. One of the ultimate examples of natural winemaking...