“I really love the textural elements in this dish – the softness of the avocado, the firmness of the kingfish, and the crunch of the nashi and radish. There’s a beautiful balance. A word of advice: make sure you flambé the vodka long enough to burn out the alcohol or the flavour will be too dominant. You can find dried wakame and agar-agar at Asian supermarkets and some health food shops,” says Matt Moran.

Ingredients

1 nashi pear, thinly sliced

Juice of ½ lime

320 gm skinless sashimi-grade kingfish loin

2½ tbsp vegetable oil

1 avocado, halved, peeled and each half quartered lengthwise

2 radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced

To garnish: flat-leaf parsley leaves

To drizzle: extra virgin olive oil

Vodka gel

100 ml vodka

1½ tbsp sugar syrup (see note)

Finely grated rind and juice each of ⅛ orange, ⅛ lemon and ⅛ lime

1 tsp agar-agar

Wasabi salt

1 tsp dried wakame seaweed

1 tbsp sea salt flakes

½ tsp wasabi powder

Method

Main

1.For vodka gel, bring vodka to the boil in a saucepan over high heat, then remove from heat and carefully tilt pan so flame sets vodka alight to burn off the alcohol. When flame goes out, add sugar syrup and bring to a simmer, then remove from heat. Add rind and juices and set aside for 5 minutes to infuse. Strain through a fine sieve and return to pan. Whisk in agar-agar, and bring to the boil over medium heat while whisking continuously. Boil, still whisking, for 1 minute, then pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set (20-30 minutes). Process in a small blender until smooth. You may need to add a little water to help blend the gel.

2.For wasabi salt, preheat oven to 100C and pound wakame with a mortar and pestle into small pieces. Place in a bowl with salt and wasabi. Slowly mix in 2 tsp water, or just enough to help stick the wasabi and salt together. Spread mixture over a non-stick baking tray and dry out in oven (15 minutes). Remove from oven, cool, then finely crush with a mortar and pestle. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

3.Place nashi pear in a small bowl, squeeze lime juice over, and set aside to marinate (10 minutes).

4.Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Season kingfish, roll in oil, then quickly sear in frying pan on each side until golden (30 seconds per side; it will remain raw in the centre). Place on a plate and refrigerate to cool, then thinly slice.

5.Roll skinned side of avocado pieces in wasabi salt and arrange on plates with nashi pear, kingfish and radish. Top with small spoonfuls of vodka gel, parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

Note For sugar syrup, combine 2 tbsp caster sugar and 2 tbsp water in a small pan and stir over medium heat until sugar has just dissolved to make about 60ml.
Watch Matt Moran from Brisbane’s Aria restaurant make the seared kingfish with radish, avocado and wasabi recipe live from the Harvey Norman Gourmet Institute Event on July 29 at Harvey Norman, Aspley in an exclusive video on the Harvey Norman website.
Notes

Matt Moran

Ingredients

Method

Main

Related stories