John Dory Fillets Seared in Indian Pastry with Tomato Cardamom Sauce
Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from chef Neil Perry's book Rockpool. Neil also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. For your convenience, we've converted the measures — with as much accuracy as possible — from Australian to American. For those who have metric equipment and wish to follow Neil's recipe to the milliliter, we've included the original measures too.
To read more about Neil and Australian cuisine, click here.
In this dish, the combination of pastry, fish, sauce, yoghurt and spinach makes a complete dish. The cardamom and tomato are a perfect match, and the fish steams gently inside as the outside of the pastry crisps up. This dish also works beautifully with the flat fish of Europe and America. It is important that the vegetables are well-seasoned and cooked until they caramelise to impart their flavour to the sauce. The depth of flavour of aromatics is so often lost when they are not allowed to do their job properly.
The Tomato and Cardamom Sauce goes nicely with all seafood; its deep, rich flavour enlivens the taste buds. The tomatoes are cut up, skin, seeds and all. Slice into thin rounds, then into julienne and chop the julienne to give a uniform dice. Don't chop them as if cutting for concassé, they lose too much juice that way.
Recipe information
Yield
Serves four as a main course
Ingredients
Tomato and Cardamom Sauce
Indian pastry
Preparation
Step 1
To make the Tomato and Cardamom Sauce, heat the oil until very hot in a heavy-based pot. Add the onion, ginger, garlic and salt. Lower the heat and cook over a moderate heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Cook until well caramelised, approximately 1 hour. Add the turmeric, cloves and cardamom, and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook slowly for 20 minutes until a thickish sauce forms. Set aside.
Step 2
To make the Indian Pastry, combine the two flours with the salt in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the egg, yoghurt, oil and water. Mix with a fork until they form a sticky mass, then knead on a bench for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Roll them out as thinly as possible on a lightly floured bench. Place them between sheets of greaseproof paper and stack them on top of each other and refrigerate until needed. Don't roll them out in advance of the time you need them, as they do not keep well when rolled out.
Step 3
Lay out the pastry sheets on a chopping board and place a fillet at one end. Fold the other half of the sheet over to completely enclose the fish, and trim the pastry right to the edge of the fish. Brush both sides of the pastry with clarified butter and wrap in greaseproof paper. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Repeat with the others.
Step 4
Heat up the sauce and keep warm. Set up a steamer to cook the spinach. Place a heavy-based frying pan on the stove to cook the fish (do 2 at a time). Put 15 ml clarified butter in the pan and heat to almost smoking. Add the fish and cook for about 3 minutes. Turn the fish over with a fish slice (spatula), and cook for a further 2 minutes. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Wipe out the pan and repeat the process. Steam the spinach.
Step 5
To serve, spoon about 100 to 120 ml (1/2 cup) of the Tomato and Cardamom Sauce into the middle of 4 white plates. Place the yoghurt on top and the spinach on the yoghurt. Cut each piece of fish in half and place on top. Serve immediately.
