Bream filet Escabeche with Ratte potatoes

Bream filet Escabeche with Ratte potatoes fondant, glazed baby carrot and orange

Requires:

For the bream:
4 bream fillets, scaled and pin-boned (ask your fishmonger to do this for you)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp clarified butter
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, juice only

For the Ratte potatoes fondant:
½ kilo of peeled Ratte potatoes
3 cloves garlic
200gms unsalted butter
thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper

For the baby carrots:
16 baby carrots
100ml of orange juice
100gms sugar
Coriander and cummin
Chives for tying

For the pickled onion:
1 red onion sliced thinly
100ml of white wine vinegar
100gms sugar
North African spices -Cumin, chilli, and coriander

Garnish:
1 segmented orange
Sprigs of fresh coriander

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/356F/Gas 4.
2. Prepare the bream, by slicing the skin side of each fillet, at ¾-inch intervals with a sharp knife. Do not cut too deeply Push a mint leaf into each of the cuts.  Keep fish cool whilst you prepare the other ingredients.
3. For the pickled onion; make the night before. Mix the vinegar, sugar and spices and add to this the sliced onion.
4. For the potato fondant; cut length ways. Dot the butter in the bottom of a small roasting dish and place the potatoes cut side down on to the butter.  Add the cloves of garlic and thyme to the dish.  Season well and put into the pre heated oven for about 45 mins.  Remove and throw out butter, turn the potatoes over and season well. Put back in the oven for another 15 mins or until skins start to crisp.   Place a buttered greaseproof paper on top and keep warm,
5. For the carrots; there is no need to peel but wipe off any marks.  Bring to a boil the orange and sugar mixture and reduce by a third and then pop in the carrots until cooked.  They should have a little ‘crunch’.  When ready plunge in iced water.  Blanch 4 strands of chives in boiling water and use these to tie the carrots into bundles of 4.  Place in an oven proof dish with a little of the remaining orange juice to moisten and keep warm.
6. Heat an ovenproof frying pan on stove and add the oil and butter. Add the garlic to flavour the oil but remove before it burns.
7. Season the fish with salt and pepper and place in the pan, skin-side down, and cook until golden, for about three to four minutes.  Using a fish slice, carefully turn the fillets, and then place in the preheated oven to finish cooking, for about four minutes.
8. To serve, place four potato halves onto a plate, top with the fish fillet
9. Place 3 segments of orange around the fish and decorate with the fresh coriander.  Place the carrot bundle and a small amount of the pickled onion on top of the fish.
10. Serve immediately