Sunday, 22 August 2010

Arctic Char with Roasted Fennel and Grated Tricolour Carrots

When Cowie was last over in Sweden we had a cracking dinner at a small restaurant and bar called Stearin, in Gothenburg’s trendy Linne district. My beef was delicious, but it was Cowie’s fillet of crispy skinned and soft fleshed röding that really caught our attention. We couldn’t work out what the mystery fish was. We left the restaurant convinced we had eaten trout but then found out via the magic of the interweb that röding is actually arctic char.

Fish Church 2

So when I saw a fillet of röding in the Feskekôrka I snapped it up and made it my mission to recreate the dish. I decided to make good use of an abundance of mulitcoloured carrots which seemed to be behaving like a chameleon as they changed colour to match the pink and purple speckled fish skin. And a stray fennel bulb seemed like a good idea too. As did an orange and a lemon.

Ingredients:

Fillet of Arctic Char
Half a fennel bulb
3 grated carrots
1 orange
1 lemon
1 tablespoon of honey
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
Some chopped parsley
Glug of olive oil
Half a red chilli
Salt and pepper

Method:

Roast the fennel in a hot oven with a wedge or two of orange for 30 minutes, or until soft and slightly coloured.

Grate your carrots. I used my MagiMix which took a mere 4 seconds and made me feel like a WI superhero! Dress the carrots with a mixture of olive oil, honey, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, orange zest and finely sliced red chilli. As well as some salt and pepper.

Grated carrots

Season the fish and sear skin side down until the skin is crisp. Then turn over and barely cook. You want the fish to be mooing.

Arrange the plate with the fennel as the foundation and balance the fish on top with the carrots looking like an upturned birds nest on the edge of the plate.

Artic char with grated carrots

It’s a delicious, light summer dish that would work just as well with salmon or trout. The carrots, with their citrus, honey and chilli notes and the sweet, aromatic fennel more than played their part too.

Further reading:

More information about Arctic Char on Chow
Swedish recipe for röding and an interesting Scandinavian food blog

4 comments:

Su-Lin said...

I can't remember if I've ever had it but arctic char rings a bell. What a beautiful looking dish! I love it when fish skin is properly crisp.

Helen said...

I've probably said this before but I ate arctic car in Iceland and loved it. It was like a juicy cross between salmon and trout. So meaty! I wish we could get it here but obviously it wouldn't be in very good condition. I'm just going to force myself upon you soon in Sweden; I'll just turn up and demand you cook me one of your lovely fish suppers. I bet you're so bloody healthy now!

Dan said...

Looks cracking Browners - you and your Magimix...so jealous. Strangely enough, I heard artic char mentioned for the first time the other day - I was sent The Scandanivian Cookbook by Trina Hahnemann and it features in there.

Jonathan said...

@Su-Lin - Crispy fish skin rules.

@Helen - Very healthy indeed and utterly delicious. You're more than welcome to come over for a feast.

@Dan - Ah... Trina Hahnemann. I've got two of her books. Both very good. Welcome to Scandi-world.

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