Blue Moki Poached in Red Wine

with sprouts, bacon, almonds and a caper beurre rouge

Ingredients

4x 140g Blue Moki fillets
150g smoked streaky bacon cut into ½ cm match sticks
75g whole almonds
1kg Brussels sprouts cut in half
3 Shallots thinly sliced
1 lemon
200g butter cut into 1cm cubes
2 table spoons of capers
3 table spoons of heavy cream
6 white peppercorns (optional)
2 glasses light not too tannic, now drinking, pinot noir

Method

For the sprouts:

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and throw in the sprouts. Cook until they still have a slight crunch. About 4 minutes. Drain and keep warm.

Fry the bacon in a wide based saucepan, until it starts to crisp and colour (you don’t need to add oil as the bacon should produce enough) then add the sliced shallots and almonds. Fry the shallots until soft and the almonds start to brown. About 2 minutes.

Add the reserved sprouts and toss together with the almonds, shallots and bacon. If the mixture starts to catch add a little water or white wine to lift the stuck goodies off the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Sprouts love black pepper.

For the fish:

Put the red wine in a shallow saucepan wide enough to just fit the fish in one layer. Add the peppercorns and two pieces of the lemon’s zest, pared off with a potato peeler.

Bring the wine to the simmer and slip in the fish. The wine should come half way up the fish. If not, top up with a little more wine.

Poach the fish for 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets, turning half way through the cooking.

Remove the fish from the cooking liquor and put onto a warm plate and leave to rest in a warm place while you make the sauce.

For the sauce

Take ½ a cup of the cooking liquor and bring to the boil in a small saucepan then reduce the liquid by half. Add 3 tablespoons of cream to the liquid and and reduce this by 1/3.

Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the butter to produce a smooth sauce. Add the capers, salt and a squeeze of lemon juice to finish the sauce.

To serve

Place a mound of the sprouts in the middle of the plate, top with the fish and spoon the sauce over the fish. Eat with a glass of the wine you poached the fish in.

John Hawkesby’s wine suggestion

Pinot Noir

Margrain River's Edge 2007

St. Clair Pioneer Block 5 Bull Block 2007

Peregrine 2007

Chardonnay

Monowai 2007