INGREDIENTS
Sake Lees Gazpacho: (makes 4 cups)
1 ounce olive oil
1 cup onion, small dice or sliced
¾ cup shallot
1/3 cup celery hearts
3 tablespoons sliced garlic
½-¾ cup sake lees
1½ cups fumet
1½ cups vegetable stock
Parsley stems
1 small bay leaf
3 ounces extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Grains of Paradise Spice Crust: (makes 3 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons grains of paradise
1 tablespoon yuzu powder
Piquillo Pepper Chutney:
½ cup diced shallots
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup piquillo pepper, small dice
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
Salt and pepper
½ teaspoon red rice vinegar
Sushi Rice:
4 cups rice
¾ cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
¼ cup white soy sauce
3 cups water
Toasted white sesame seeds
Cobia:
4 5-ounce pieces cobia loin
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
To Assemble and Serve:
½ teaspoon chopped fresh marjoram
12 sea beans
METHOD
For the Sake Lees Gazpacho:
Preheat a two-handle sauce pot over medium heat. Add 1 ounce of olive oil. Sweat onion, shallots, celery hearts, and garlic until they are completely translucent. Add the sake lees to the pan and break up with a wooden spoon. Saute the sake lees until the nutty aroma is released. Deglaze with the fumet and vegetable stock. Combine the parsley stems and bay leaf in a sachet and add to the pot. Simmer for 10 minutes and remove. Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth. Strain through a chinois. Whisk in olive oil by hand and adjust consistency with vegetable stock or water. Season with salt and pepper; if necessary, adjust with lemon juice.
For the Grains of Paradise Spice Crust:
Use a mortar and pestle to grind the grains of paradise into the yuzu powder until its coarse in consistency.
For the Piquillo Pepper Chutney:
In a medium sauté pan over low heat, sweat the shallots in olive oil without letting them color. Add the peppers and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add the molasses and season. Continue to cook until the molasses begins to stick and deglaze with the red rice vinegar. Return the pot to a low simmer then remove from the heat. Spread the chutney on a room temperature pan and let cool.
For the Sushi Rice:
Rinse the rice, cover with a towel, and strain. Cook on medium heat without stirring until the rice starts to stick to the bottom of the pan and the liquid has reduced. Spread out on a sheet pan and season with rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and toasted white sesame seeds.
For the Cobia:
Brush the cobia with olive oil and season with 4 teaspoons grains of paradise spice crust and salt. Place on a hot grill and cook until marked on all sides. Move fish to a cooler section of the grill and baste the fish with more olive oil.
To Assemble and Serve:
In a small sauce pot, heat up chutney and finish it with fresh marjoram. In another small sauce pot, heat up ½ cup of the sake lees and adjust consistency with stock, lemon juice, and olive oil. Blanch the sea beans in another small sauce pot of boiling unsalted water for 2 seconds and remove. Quenelle 2 cups of the sushi rice and place on the plate. Spread the chutney in a flat rectangular line opposite the rice. Spoon the sauce around the chutney and over the top of the rice. Slice each cobia into 3 pieces and arrange it on the chutney displaying both the grill marks and the eye of the loin. Garnish with the sea beans.
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