Pauline’s
Happy Time Barramundi
with fennel confit, eggplant purée & citrus sauce
When Pauline first moved to New Zealand from Hong Kong with her husband (and later to Australia), it was an abrupt, difficult adjustment.
“I didn’t know anything,” she shared. “I even went to cooking class to learn English cooking, because I only knew Chinese, you know?”
“At that time, there weren’t many Asians, and we were quite unusual to see,” she recalled. “But I met lots of different people through my kids’ school. My best friend is Greek, and I got to know English, Danish, Italian friends…lots of nationalities.”
And this dish is, in effect, an amalgamation of the people and places that Pauline has come to know and love.
At first, it began as a sauce. “I learned it from my Danish girlfriend, who was an excellent cook,” she told me. The recipe came from an old restaurant cookbook (Pauline said it was a restaurant called Pinot Les, but the closest one I could find to that name is titled ‘Pied Noir’).
Barramundi, a quintessentially Australian fish, was incorporated very naturally into the dish, along with eggplant for nutrition. Pauline cooked this form of the dish as she began to work full time as her children entered high school.
Later on in her career, she worked for Hermès as the manager of the Sydney flagship store. Over the course of numerous work trips to France, she learned to love fennel, to flavor ingredients with orange peel, to stir butter into sauces to thicken them. All this new knowledge found its way into the dish in the form of new additions, until it took its final form—the one that appears here, in the recipe below.
Before, this barramundi acted as a go-to hosting dish at Pauline’s house, an impressive plate for entertaining. But now that she’s retired, it has become something cooked only for her grandchildren.
“Every time I cook it, I never disappoint them. They eat it,” she emphasized. “They don't just look at it. They just finish it. They even finish the fennel. They even eat my eggplant.” That, in particular, is a feat for her grandchildren, who dislike vegetables.
“That's the reason I cook this one a lot more often, is because of my grandkids,” Pauline concluded.“We call it Happy Time, this meal, because we’re all together for it.”
INGREDIENTS
For the fennel confit
3 small fennel bulbs
Olive oil
3 wide strips of orange zest
3 sprigs thyme
Pinch salt
For the eggplant purée
2 small eggplants
1 clove garlic
For the barramundi
6x barramundi fillet
Olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground white pepper
For the sauce
2 oranges
Juice of 1-2 limes
A level tbsp sugar
1-2 lemons
50 grams unsalted butter
let’s cook!
Note: Pauline makes the fennel and the eggplant a day ahead, then reheats it the day of serving. This cuts down the stress and the hassle of trying to get everything done at once.
For the fennel, trim the base of the fennel. Leave 2cm of the stalk, remove the outer layer, and cut the bulbs in half lengthwise.
Preheat the oven to 120 C, cover fennel with olive oil, and add the orange zest, salt, and thyme. Bake for 30-40 mins (Until the knife goes straight through—done).
To make the eggplant purée, prick the eggplant all over with a fine skewer and cut under a very hot grill until the skin is blackened and the eggplant begins to collapse.
When the eggplant cools, peel away and discard the skin. Then, puree the flesh with garlic in a blender and set aside. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper, then set aside.
For the citrus sauce, use vegetable peeler to remove orange zest in wide strips.
Julienne the zest. Transfer the zest to a small saucepan of cold water and bring to a boil. Drain until the zest is dry, then set aside.
Trim the bottom and top of the lemon, then remove the zest and pith by following the contours of the fruit.
Slice between the membranes to produce lemon segments and set aside. Keep the collected juice separately.
Combine the lemon juice, the lime juice, a little bit of orange juice and the orange zest in a small saucepan and heat gently. Do not boil Melt the butter a little bit at a time into the citrus mix to slightly thicken. You might not use all 50 grams; use just enoughThe sauce should be a balance of sweet and sour flavors.
Ten minutes before cooking the barramundi, dry the fish completely and sprinkle salt and pepper generously on both sides.
To cook the barramundi, heat a heavy based frying pan. Add a generous film of olive oil and pan fry over moderate heat for 3 min on each side. Season with salt and pepper while frying.
To plate, reheat the eggplant purée and place a generous spoon at the base. Then, lay the fish on top. On the side, reheat the fennel (use a dash of olive oil in a pan and cook gently until heated through) before spooning alongside the fish. Pour the sauce on top and garnish with the lemon segments. Enjoy!