Charred bonito with achara salad

• serves

  6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 200 g piece sashimi-grade bonito, skin on, cut into 4 equal pieces
• 100 g sea grapes, picked (see Note)
• 1 small tomato, diced
• 2 small red onions, finely diced
• soy sauce, to serve

Achara

• 500 ml (2 cups) chilli cane vinegar
• 500 g sugar
• 1 garlic clove, blanched, crushed
• 1 small daikon, peeled, cut into julienne
• 1 carrot, peeled, cut into julienne
• 1 small green pawpaw, peeled, cut into julienne
• 4 long red chillies, seeded, cut into julienne
• 50 g ginger, peeled, cut into julienne

Vinaigrette

• 10 Calamansi lemons, juiced, strained (see Note)
• 80 ml (⅓ cup) rice wine
• 60 ml (¼ cup) olive oil
• 2 tbsp sugar
• salt and pepper, to taste

Standing time 10 minutes

Instructions

Place the fish, skin-side up, on an oven tray and place a lightly oiled cake rack on top of the fish. Using a domestic blowtorch, sear the skin for 10 seconds or until the skin has been just marked. Remove the cake rack and refrigerate the fish until needed. 

For the achara, place the chilli vinegar and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then increase heat to how and bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Cool, then add the garlic. Add the remaining ingredients, combine well and stand for at least 10 minutes. Drain and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Combine the sea grapes, tomato and onion in a bowl. Set aside.

To make the vinaigrette, place all the ingredients in a bowl, season to taste and combine well.

To serve, thinly slice the fish and arrange on plates. Top with the sea grape salad and serve the achara separately with soy sauce.

Note

• Calamansi are a citrus fruit similar to lemons and are widely used in the Philippines. You can substitute with lemons. Sea grapes are a type of seaweed that forms in clumps that look like a bunch of grapes.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.