Sous Vide Pollock | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous vide pollock with kombu seaweed, sweetcorn and grapefruit

COOK TIME: 2 hours
PREP TIME: 1 hour
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

Pollock

500g of pollock fillet
50g of kombu, dried
lemon juice
salt

Curry

250ml of grapeseed oil
175g of apple
125g of onion
1 lemongrass stick
20g of curry powder
5g of salt
tapioca starch

To serve

2 corn on the cob
16 dandelion leaves
10 radishes
lilliput capers
1 grapefruit
coriander

Equipment

Method

Begin by preparing and cooking the Pollock. To do this you will firstly need to fill and preheat your water bath cooker to 45°C
Place the dried kombu into a food processer and blitz until it forms a powder. Spread the whole surface of the Pollock with the powder then place in a vacuum pouch and seal using your vacuum sealer
Submerge the pouch into the water bath and allow to cook sous vide for 15-17 minutes, depending on the thickness of the Pollock fillet
Once cooked, take the pouch out of the bath and immediately submerge in ice water until cool. Set the fillet aside until ready to serve
For the curry, begin by heating 100ml of the grapeseed oil and frying the onion with the lemongrass and apple until translucent. Add the curry powder and cook for a further 2 minutes
Heat the remainder of the grapeseed oil with the salt. Once it has reached a temperature of 60°C remove from the heat and combine with the onion mixture. Allow the mixture to marinate for a minimum of 20 minutes
Once marinated, pass through a chionois then set aside to cool
Once cooled, spoon 6 tablespoons of the curry mixture into a bowl along with heaped tablespoons of the tapioca starch. Thoroughly combine until the mixture forms a powder
To finish the dish, begin by using a blowtorch on the corn on the cobs until charred then take the dandelion leaves and pick until you have sprigs. Set these aside
Pre-heat your deep fat fryer to 190°C and fry the Lilliput capers until they have opened up. Remove from the fryer and place on kitchen towel
Once you have cleaned the radishes, they need to be finely grated
Slice the grapefruit segments into small pieces
To arrange the plate, slice the sous vide pollock into bite size pieces before using the salt and lemon to season. Arrange the pieces on the plate then place the radishes and grapefruit pieces on top
Take the curry powder and use this to sprinkle liberally over each plate. Arrange the dandelion leaves on top then finally sprinkle with the deep fried capers and the sprigs of coriander. Serve immediately.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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