Recipes

The richness of the smoked cod’s roe and lumpfish caviar complemented by the tender sweetness of the local new season asparagus, finished beautifully with the fresh acidity of the brown shrimp vierge. Matt’s tip – serve this dish with some freshly toasted sourdough and seaweed butter available from our deli counter opening soon.

Ingredients

18 new season asparagus spears

Sauce Vierge

200g extra virgin olive oil
2 x ripe plum tomatoes
200g brown shrimp
Sprig fresh dill
1 sprig flat leaf parsley
1 sprig basil
½ lemon
½ shallot

Smoked Cod’s Cream

100g smoked cod’s roe
300g mascarpone
salt and pepper

To Serve

Trout caviar
Seaweed powder
Black onion seeds

Method

Place the smoked cod’s roe in a mixing bowl discarding the outer skin. Whisk until creamy, ensuring all lumps are removed. Add the mascarpone, season with salt and pepper, whisking until combined and smooth. Place the whipped creamy cod’s roe into a piping bag and place in the fridge to firm up.

For the Sauce Vierge, finely dice the shallot and place in a small mixing bowl. Carefully plunge tomatoes into boiling water for 10 seconds using a fork. Once cool enough to handle, remove the seeds and skin, dice, then add to the shallot. Finely chop the herbs and crush the coriander seeds. Add to the shallots and tomato along with the brown shrimp a squeeze of lemon. Pour over the olive oil, leaving a little to dress the asparagus, mix well, season to taste then place in the fridge for the flavours to infuse.

To cook the asparagus, blanch in salted water for 2 minutes. Refresh in ice cold water. Drain and set aside.

To serve, dress the asparagus with olive oil and season. Pipe a generous dome of the cod’s roe cream onto each plate next to three spears of asparagus. Sprinkle the cod’s roe with black onion seeds, a dusting of seaweed powder and a teaspoon of trout caviar. Dress the asparagus and plate with the shrimp vierge. Garnish with sprigs of watercress.