Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Chef Kezia Kristel won the S.Pellegrino Award for Social Responsibility for the Pacific Region.
Kezia Kristel shares the recipes for her all-time favourite dishes; potato and pumpkin dauphinoise and pan-roasted toothfish, drawing on the abundance of great seasonal and local ingredients available during the winter months in Sydney.
Originally from Jakarta, Indonesia, the classically French trained chef says her approach to cooking is “Simple, classic and modern, yet sustainable.” Her ambition is to “Present dishes that are delicious, using more plant-based ingredients,” and lives by the mantra “maximum flavours and minimum wastage.”
In Kristel's recipe choice she offers up some easy-to-cook ideas suitable for any occasion, but which are ideally suited to small celebratory gatherings of friends and family.
Dauphinoise is one Kristel’s favourite classical French dishes, while toothfish is "one of the most delicious fish” she says she’s ever eaten. “I had it in one of the restaurants in Sydney several years ago and would never forget how good it tasted.”
When sourcing the recipe ingredients, feel free to substitute ingredients local to where you live, says Kristel. For example, the dauphinoise can be made with potato only, and you can use delicious local fish you have available in your country. Simply let your imagination run free when it comes to plating and serving the dishes.
Take a look at her step-by-step guide below.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Wash the potatoes and slice thinly (skin on) with a mandolin, cover with water, re-wash them to remove the starch (save the trimmings).
Cut and peel the pumpkin with a knife, remove the seeds, cut in half, and half again.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Slice the pumpkin thinly using a mandolin (save the trimmings).
Finely chop the herbs (thyme/rosemary) with garlic.
Heat up vegetable stock.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Remove the potatoes from the water, drain them well, transfer into bowl with pumpkin, add chopped herbs and garlic, salt, and olive oil. Mix well.
Prepare a square tin with baking paper and a drizzle of oil on the bottom to make it stick.
Heat the oven up to 190C.
Transfer the sliced and seasoned potatoes and pumpkin to the tin. Arrange them neatly, layer by layer. (Line the potatoes together, then the pumpkins together - repeat until all the ingredients in the bowl are finished).
Add vegetable stock to the tin, up until under the top layer. Put another sheet of baking paper above the top layer, add another square tin and any heavy kitchen tools that are safe to go to the oven to press the dauphinoise down.
After that's done, put the tin in the oven for 20-40 mins, check if its cooked with skewer.
Remove the heavy tools and baking paper from the top of the dauphinoise, brush the surface with melted butter to finish, place in the oven again for another 5-7 mins at 200c.
Remove from the oven when cooked and slightly golden.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Heat up the vegetable stock and cream in different pans until boiled and lukewarm.
Weigh up 30% of the potato trimmings and up to 70% of the pumpkin waste.
Heat a pan with a drizzle of olive oil, add garlic, then add the measured waste to the pan, sauté it and allow to colour/caramelise a little in the pan.
Add the weighed cold butter. Add vegetable stock until covered, then cover with a cartouche or baking paper on the top, cook until soft.
When it's cooked (there won’t be much liquid left from the stock) transfer it into a blender, add the heated up/lukewarm cream little by little, until it's really smooth (blitz it up for 3 minutes).
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Rip up a sheet of seaweed into small pieces, put in dehydrator (if you have one) or in the oven at 68c overnight. After it’s dried, blitz it with measured sea salt.
Add all spices in the pot (star anises, cloves, peppercorns) and heat on medium for 1-2 mins until you smell the aromas (do not burn!), add water, apple cider, salt, and sugar, let it boil. After it’s done, put it aside to steep and cool down.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Peel the beetroots, slice them very thinly on a mandolin. Cover with pickling liquid while hot, place baking paper on the surface, allow to cool.
Slice the radishes very thinly on a mandolin, immerse them in cold water, re-wash, add iced water for 2-3 mins, then drain. Add cold pickling liquid, add baking paper on the surface, let them pickle for a few hours (the longer it’s pickling the better).
Slice the radishes on mandolin very thinly, place in cold water, re-wash, add iced water for 2-3 mins, then drain.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Bring the fish up to RTP (Room Temperature), give it a good dry with a paper towel all over, lightly score the skin, add seasoning: salt and white pepper.
Heat a pan for frying the fish and in another pot heat 300 ml of oil for frying the seeds, grains and daikon. Heat oven to 190c.
Also, set up another pot with a strainer and a tray with a paper towel to dry the fried ingredients.
When the pan is hot, add a little bit of cooking oil and add the seasoned fish into pan (skin side first) press it with your hand/fish weight pressure for a few minutes until the skin is coloured and slightly crispy, turn in around on the other side for a minute or two until it’s nearly cooked, flip it again on skin side, then put into the oven for 2-3 mins.
Take it out from the oven, finish with a small cube of butter, baste the fish, let it dry and rest in a warm area for couple of minutes.
Fry the sunflower seeds, multi-coloured quinoa and thinly-sliced daikon in a pot of hot oil separately. Season with dashi powder.
Leave to dry for couple of minutes. Mix just before serving.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Put the nasturtium leaves and flowers in cold water for around 5 mins, then drain well.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
Cut the potato and pumpkin dauphinoise and plate it up with the pickled vegetables that already dried up.
Take the purple kale stems out with knife, slice the leaf into three to four small to medium pieces.
Plate the fish in a plate.
Then, in a small bowl, add the nasturtium leaves, picked nasturtium flowers leaves, cute purple kale. Add a little salt, sugar, squeeze the mandarin juice and a little bit of lemon juice, and add a little bit extra virgin olive oil. Mix well, taste, season again if necessary, then it’s ready to go to serve.
Courtesy of Chef Kezia Kristel
The final dish.
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