Chefs' Recipes

Cured kingfish with cucumber and gin and tonic granita

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for cured kingfish with cucumber and gin and tonic granita from Print Hall.

Oct 22, 2014 1:00pm
  • 10 mins preparation
  • 10 mins cooking plus cooling, resting
  • Serves 8
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Cured kingfish with cucumber and gin and tonic granita
"I adore Print Hall's cured kingfish with gin and tonic granita. Would you ask the restaurant for the recipe?"
Cathy Watts, Rozelle, NSW
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Ingredients

  • ½ telegraph cucumber, seeds removed, cut into 1cm dice
  • 85 ml tonic water
  • 1 skinned and boned kingfish top loin (about 1kg)
  • To serve: salad burnet (see note)
Gin and tonic granita
  • ½ telegraph cucumber, seeds removed, roughly chopped
  • 15 ml Hendricks gin
  • 10 ml sugar syrup (see note)
  • 85 ml tonic water
Gin cure
  • 1 tbsp juniper berries
  • 5 gm fresh ginger, grated
  • ¼ cinnamon quill
  • 4 gm liquorice root (see note), finely chopped
  • Finely grated rind of ½ pink grapefruit, lemon and lime
  • 30 gm each caster sugar
Juniper mascarpone
  • 100 gm mascarpone
  • ½ bunch chives, finely chopped
  • 2 golden shallots, finely diced
  • Finely grated rind of ½ lemon
  • 1 tsp juniper berries, finely crushed with mortar and pestle

Method

Main
  • 1
    For gin and tonic granita, blend cucumber, gin and 10ml sugar syrup in a blender until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve, stir in tonic water and transfer to a 20cm x 30cm shallow metal tray and freeze, stirring and scraping occasionally with a fork, until ice crystals form (4-5 hours).
  • 2
    Combine cucumber and tonic in a bowl and refrigerate for flavours to develop (2-3 hours), then strain and discard liquid.
  • 3
    For gin cure, process all ingredients except sugar in a food processor until fine (2-3 minutes), then stir in sugar and salt to taste. Place kingfish in a non-reactive container and pat the cure mix evenly on both sides. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours for flavours to cure.
  • 4
    For juniper mascarpone, mix ingredients in a bowl, season to taste and refrigerate until needed.
  • 5
    Wipe excess cure from kingfish with paper towels and pat dry. Cut kingfish into 5mm slices, arrange on a platter, top with granita, diced cucumber and salad burnet and serve with juniper mascarpone.

Notes

Note Salad burnet, a herb that tastes similar to cucumber, is available from select herb sellers; if it's unavailable, substitute a mild micro-cress. For sugar syrup, heat equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan until sugar dissolves, then cool. Liquorice root is available at Asian supermarkets.

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