Roasted Coral Trout with a Lemon Thyme Consomme

When I saw this coral trout recipe being cooked on Masterchef I knew I would have to try it as I had coral trout in my freezer and it looked pretty yummy. About half way through cooking it I wonderd why on earth I had tried!! 10 dirty saucepans and a very messy kitchen 2 hours later I decided it had been worth the effort!

The two hardest parts in making this recipe were removing the chicken skin without tearing it and making a clear consomme. A consomme is a perfectly clear soup free of fat and full of flavour. To make the consomme you boil chopped chicken marylands (remove skin and then cut through bones into chunky pieces), carrots, celery, onions, thyme, bay leaves and chicken stock for half an hour.

Once cooked you drain the concomme and cool the liquid. You then reheat the liquid after whisking in  pureed chicken breast, carrots, celery, onions and egg whites. The egg whites and meat are used to trap the particles still suspended in the liquid and hence clarify it as they cook and rise to the top. The trick is to remove the clarified liquid without disturbing the "raft" that has formed on top and strain it through a muslin cloth. I didn't have any muslin so used some paper coffee filters which were very slow to filter through! The result was a nice clear flavoursome broth but it did still have some fat particles shimmering on the surface. I think my raft was disturbed during the clarifying process, possibly I had the temperature too high at one stage and the bubbles caused the disturbance. I certainly wouldn't say it was a perfect consomme.

To prepare the trout you rub some chicken mince into the chicken skin and then push in the coral trout fillets. The aim is to have all the filling covered by chicken skin but as I had torn my skin I did have some gaps which didn't affect the dish too much. You then wrap firmly in cling wrap and briefly poach. Again I think my water was too hot as some of the cling wrap broke. You then place in iced water and remove cling wrap. Finally you make a light tempura batter from flour, curry powder and mineral water and brush onto the chicken skin before frying until nice and golden and cooked through.

To prepare the vegetables you fry sliced fennel until tender (adding some butter for flavour at the end) and blanch some sugar snap peas, carrots and cauliflower. The recipe asks for baby yellow carrots and shimeji mushrooms which I couldn't buy so I ommitted the mushrooms and substituted regular baby carrots. You also confit purple and kipfler potatoes (and golden baby beetroots, which I left out as I couldn't buy them) with garlic, thyme and olive oil. Basically this means you cover them in olive oil and cook over a low heat for 25 minutes. The potatoes were meant to be "turned" or shaped into nice football shapes but I just cut them into pieces.

To serve you arrange the vegetables in a bowl and top with sliced coral trout then pour the consomme around the plate and garnish with thyme leaves.

The flavours in this dish were lovely and light and worked really well together. The fennel and curry powder added interest. The coral trout was tender and the chicken skin crisp. A very nice dish which can be found at  http://www.masterchef.com.au/roasted-coral-trout-with-a-lemon-thyme-consomme.htm

Rating 8 out of 10.