Whitebait & Kale

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Small Talk: I have a 15% food discount voucher from Whitebait & Kale... anyone who is interested to dine with me, please leave your comment behind and I will get in touch with you. Fresh Catch! Part 2 will be conducted on 14 April (Sat). For more details, please visit www.whitebaitandkale.com
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Beginning of this month, an old friend of mine persuaded me to attend a cooking class conducted by Whitebait & Kale – “Fresh Catch! Part 1”.

It being my first cooking class, I was excited enough to convinced another of my friend to join us. Whitebait & Kale was the brainchild of owner Keith Loh, whose aim was to offer foodies a setting that combines quality fare, relaxed dining in effortless fashion.

Held in the comfort of the restaurant, the in–house cooking class was conducted by Head Chef Nabil Tan.

The first dish that was demonstrated was Fish Chowder with Hush Puppies. Like me, I reckon that many readers would wonder how this dish is associated with the famous footwear. Well, in actual fact, hushpuppies are finger-shaped dumplings of cornmeal. History has it that confederate soldiers when detected Yankee soldiers approaching, would toss their yapping dogs some of these fried cornmeal cakes with the command “Hush, puppies!”.

During the sampling, I find the soup to be tasty, however all of us felt that the hushpuppies should be best left for the dogs (At this point, we all wondered too why were made to consume food meant for the dog?!?). One interesting tip that I pick up though was that Saltine Crackers was crushed and added to the soup (in replacement of starch) to thicken the soup.

Next up was Gilthead Seabream baked with Lemon & Fennel, Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce.

This dish totally dispels the notion that fresh fish must be steamed to taste good.

The Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce was an excellent compliment to the fish, which has a hint of charred taste from the baking process.

The finale then came in the form of Linguine Caroccio Fruiti di Mare, or linguine with seafood baked in parchment paper. A pretty straight forward Seafood Marinara?

Or so we thought until we realised that the additional process of wrapping the linguine in the parchment paper and baking it, actually traps and brings out the essence of the sea - a truly delicious and aromatic dish.

One Orchard Boulevard
Camden Centre, #01-01
Singapore 248649

Gilthead Seabream baked with Lemon & Fennel, Hazelnut Brown Butter Sauce

Ingredients

600-700g Gilthead Seabream

1 nos Lemon (sliced)

1 small Fennel (sliced)

10g Dill (1 small bundle)

10g Basil (1 small bundle)

a pinch Sea Salt

a pinch Coarse Black Pepper

1 tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

30g Hazelnuts (toasted & coarsely chopped)

40g Unsalted Butter

1 tbsp Parsley

1 small Tomato (seeded & diced)

a pinch Salt

Method:

1. Score both sides of Seabream with a sharp knife

2. Insert lemon slices into slitted pockets

3. Stuff fennel, lemon slices, dill & parsley into stomach (cavity) of Seabream. Season with sea salt and pepper

4. Drizzle with olive oil & bake on tray in oven at 230°C for 20 minutes, or until fish flakes

5. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat, continue heating until batter began to foam & burn slightly. Remove from heat

6. Let foam subside slightly. Add hazelnuts, tomato slices, parsley & salt

7. Spoon brown butter sauce over the entire Seabream & server immediately

Linguine Cartoccio Fruiti de Mare

Ingredients

500g Linguine Pasta

2 litres Water

8 pieces Medium Prawns (peeled, deveined, tail intact)

1 large Squid (cut into rings, tentacles trimmed)

12 pieces Clams (cleaned & scrubbed off any sand)

200g Snapper Fillet (cut into small pieces)

400ml Chopped Tomatoes

4 cloves Garlic (sliced)

20 ml White Wine

1 bunch Basil Leaves (coarsely chopped)

1bunch Italian Parsley (coarsely chopped)

20ml Olive Oil

to taste Salt & Pepper

Method

1. Bring water to a rapid boil, add linguine & cook for about 5-6 minutes

2. Drain pasta & reserve

3. Sauté garlic with olive oil in a large sauce pan

4. When garlic starts to brown, add snapper pieces & cook for a minute

5. Add clams, prawns & squid, sauté for another 1 minute

6. Add white wine & simmer for another minute

7. Remove all seafood & set aside

8. In the same pan, add chopped tomatoes, basil, parsley, salt & pepper

9. Cook on medium heat until sauce reduced slightly, about 5 minutes

10. Toss linguine into the sauce & stir until pasta well coated with tomato sauce

11. Transfer linguine onto a large parchment paper

12. Lay all seafood over the linguine, wrap up into a parcel

13. Baked in pre heated oven at 200°C for 10-12 minutes

14. Open up and serve immediately