Turbot, lemon thyme crumb, leeks, carrots, chervil gnocchi, smoked cod roe & chive sauce

The Recipes / Fish

4 x portions of turbot
1 lemon for juice

Chervil gnocchi
250g cooked maris piper potato flesh
60g grated parmesan
2 egg yolks
125g plain flour
2tbs fresh chervil, chopped

Smoked cod roe & chive sauce
400g banana shallots, sliced 3 cloves garlic
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
400ml white wine
1 litre good quality fish stock
250g double cream
20g chives
Smoked cod roe

Braised leek
4 young leeks
250ml chicken stock
Chervil, chopped
Chives, chopped

Baby carrots
8 baby carrots
1 sprig thyme

Leek purée
3 leeks, white only
Handful of spinach
200ml double cream

Lemon thyme crumb
2tbs lemon thyme, chopped
200g soft butter
4tbs panko breadcrumbs

www.askhamhall.co.uk

Serves 4

Boil the potatoes until just cooked. Dry off and whilst warm pass through a sieve. Add the parmesan, then the yolks and chervil and knead into the flour. Roll out into long sausages and cut into about 2cm pieces. Poach in boiling water, and once they have floated to the top transfer to iced water to cool. Drain and set aside until needed.

Sweat off the shallots and garlic in a pan with a little knob of butter for about 10 minutes, then add the thyme, bay leaf and white wine and reduce by 2/3’s. Add the fish stock and again reduce by 2/3’s, then add the cream and reduce to a sauce consistency. Pass off the solids, put the sauce in a blender, and blend with the chives and cod roe (about 25g but add to taste). Once blended again, pass off through a fine sieve and set aside.

Trim the leeks to about 25cm. In a pan braise the leeks in the stock with a good handful of chervil and chives. Season with salt and cook for about 10 minutes or until tender.

Cover the carrots with water with the thyme, bay leaf, and a good knob of butter. Slowly cook, seasoning with salt and sugar to taste, until just cooked. Keep in the liquid until serving.

Finely dice then sweat the leeks on a low heat with a small knob of butter until translucent. Add the cream and cook for another 10 minutes or so, then add the spinach, cook for another minute, and blend until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve and set aside.

Mix the lemon thyme and butter together. Fry the breadcrumbs in 2 tablespoons of the lemon thyme butter until lightly golden brown: season with salt and set aside.

To serve, season and grill the turbot on a low heat. Fry the gnocchi in butter until golden brown, heat the leek and carrots in their own cooking liquids, and warm through the sauce and purée. When the fish is cooked season with a little lemon juice and arrange the ingredients on the plate, with a spoonful of the thyme crumbs on the fish.