Seafood trio

Photographer: Adam
Serves 4

Feeling particularly patriotic with all the Rugby World Cup fever around the place, I got to thinking about what makes us New Zealanders. The thing about New Zealand is that you are never more than a few hours drive from water.  Being an island nation, we are surrounded by coastline, dotted with lakes large and small, and crisscrossed by rivers.  I can’t help feeling that you can’t get much more Kiwi than watching the All Blacks play (and win of course) while tucking into a plate of seafood!

To create my seafood trio I selected some fresh Nelson scallops, West Coast whitebait and made some tasty Paua patties with a surprise ingredient – a few finely chopped dates to add a hint of sweetness.  For the whitebait I chose to simply flash fry the little suckers in a bit of olive oil and butter, season and toss with a squeeze of lemon juice.  Delicious!  To play on the black and white theme I topped with some seaweed caviar for a satisfyingly salty finish.  Ditto for the scallops – when fresh off the boat they love nothing better than a kiss of butter, a sprinkling of salt and a couple of minutes in a hot pan.  Serve the lot with lemon wedges and a dollop of tartare sauce.

INGREDIENTS

Paua patties
100g paua mince
1 egg
3 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
Finely grated zest of half a lemon
3 dried dates, very finely chopped
½ cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
½ cup milk

Scallops
12 scallops
Butter and olive oil for frying
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon

Whitebait
100g Whitebait
Butter and olive oil for frying
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tsp seaweed caviar

Tartare sauce and lemon wedges to serve

METHOD

Paua patties
1. Combine paua mince, egg, shallots, garlic, lemon zest and dates in a medium sized bowl.
2. Sift in flour and baking powder, season well, and add enough milk to make a relatively loose fritter mix.
3. Heat a heavy based frying pan over a medium-high heat, add a dollop of oil and a knob of butter. Once butter is sizzling, fry tablespoons of batter for just a couple of minutes each side, until golden.

Scallops
Fry scallops over a medium-high heat in butter and oil for two minutes each side. Season well with salt, squeeze over lemon juice. Set aside for a minute while you fry the whitebait.

Whitebait
Fry whitebait over a medium-high heat in butter and oil for one minute – once the flesh turns white remove from pan, toss with lemon juice, salt and pepper and serve immediately toped with a teaspoon of seaweed caviar.