ALL YEAR ROUND // Recipe for four
Clams, charcoal, smoked roe and pickled spent lettuce
I love the burnt, smoked campfire characteristics of this recipe. We don’t use a lot of whole fish at Biota but I do love creatures in shells: they come to us in their own little environment, contained in their own tasty juices. We use the charcoal here to mimic the dark sand of the shoreline where the clams are found. The samphire on the plate is also foraged from the same shoreline. Buy mirror dory roe sacs at the fish markets or order them in from your fishmonger. Alternatively, ask your fishmonger to track down whatever fish roe is in season; the whiter the better, although this recipe will also work with trout or salmon roe.
PICKLED SPENT LETTUCE
4 wilted cos (romaine) lettuces, cleaned but left whole
300 ml (10½ fl oz) rice vinegar
200 g (7 oz) honey
90 ml (3 fl oz) white soy sauce
Put the lettuces on a hot barbecue or in a frying pan over high heat until the outside leaves are charred and blackened. Mix together the rice vinegar, honey and white soy to make a pickle. Pour the pickle into an airtight container that is large enough to hold the whole lettuce. Add the lettuce to the pickle, seal the container and leave overnight in the fridge. Break off leaves as you’re ready to use them.
CLAMS
8 carpet shell clams or similar
50 ml (13/4 fl oz) clam juices
2 native limes, flesh spooned out
60 ml (2 fl oz) linseed (flaxseed) oil
Open the clams in the same fashion as you’d open oysters, over a bowl to catch any juices. Gently remove the meat from the shells and cut into small pieces. Add the native lime, oil and 50 ml (13/4 fl oz) collected clam juices and then spoon back into a clean shell. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
SMOKED ROE
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) mirror dory roe sacs
1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) pine or apple timber
200 ml (7 fl oz) lemon juice
20 g (3/4 oz) garlic, coarsely chopped
100 g (3½ oz) white onion, coarsely chopped
200 g (7 oz) white bread, torn into pieces
300 ml (10½ fl oz) grape seed oil
60 g (2¼ oz) salt
Place the roe sacs on a wire rack. To build a smoker, take a deep oven tray and build a small fire in it with the timber. Smother the fire by putting a flat tray on top of the deep tray, locking in all the smoke. Lift off the flat tray and put the wire rack with the roe on the smothered fire. Replace the flat tray to lock in the smoke. Leave for about 20 minutes. Remove the rack and roe and build another small fire in your deep tray. Repeat the process twice more, until the roe is smoked to your taste.
Remove the fish eggs from inside the sac and purée with the lemon juice, garlic, onion and bread until smooth. Slowly add the grape seed oil while continuing to blend. Blend to a smooth paste, add salt to taste and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
CHARCOAL
400 g (14 oz) organic white flour
100 g (3½ oz) activated charcoal
10 g (¼ oz) salt
60 ml (2 fl oz) grape seed oil
Put 200 ml (7 fl oz) water in a bowl. Add the flour, charcoal, salt and oil and mix to form a dough (kneading is not necessary). Rest the dough for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line about 5 baking trays. Roll the dough as thinly as possible into rectangles approximately the size of your baking trays. Put the dough on the trays and bake for 11 minutes or until crunchy. Cool on the trays, smash into small pieces and store in an airtight tin for up to 1 month.
