Nappe Hapuku with Sweetcorn, Otago Cockles and Yuzu

Ingredients

Yuzu Gel:

350ml Yuzu juice
150ml water
10g Agar Agar
40g Sugar
Sweetcorn Purée:

300g Sweetcorn:

1/2 lemon, juiced
100ml olive oil
Salt to taste
0.5g xanthan gum

Pickled Enoki Mushrooms:

200g Enoki Mushrooms
Oil
25ml Chardonnay vinegar

Hapuka:

4/6 kg hapuka
Rock salt

Otago Cockles:

1kg Otago cockles
1 onion
200ml white wine

Baby Corn:

4 baby corn
Butter
Salt

Sweetcorn Sauce:

Reserved fish stock
Reserved cockle juice
200ml of Sweetcorn juice
300g butter
Salt
Lemon juice

Method

Yuzu Gel: Place all ingredients into a saucepan, blend with a hand blender till all ingredients are mixed. Bring to the boil then chill down quickly. Once the mix has set, place into a blender till smooth. Place the gel into a vacuum chamber and open vac to take the air out of the gel making it nice and clear. 300g Sweetcorn: Place the corn and olive oil into a blender and blend till smooth, season with salt and lemon juice. Pickled Enoki Mushrooms: Prep the enoki mushrooms by taking them off the stalk. Place a pan on the stove till it’s nearly smoking, add some oil to the pan and flash fry the mushrooms. Add a pinch of flaky salt to the mushrooms to bring out the flavour, then deglaze the pan with the vinegar. Continue to cook for a further minute. Hapuka: Prep the hapuka into fillets taking the skin off. Salt the fish for 8 minutes, wash off salt then leave to dry in the fridge for a day, which allows you to get a nice crust on the fish. Keep the bones to make a light stock for the sauce. Otago Cockles: Place a pan with a lid of the stove and wait till it’s really hot. Meanwhile slice the onion. Place the cockles and onion into the pan, then add the white wine, cover with a lid and cook for roughly 2 minutes till all the cockles are open. Take the cockles out of the shells and reserve the juice for the sauce. Baby Corn: Remove the baby corns from their husks, place in a Vac Pac bag with some butter and salt. Cook at 72 degrees for 1 hour. Halve the corns down the middle then brush with oil and finish on the bbq. Sweetcorn Sauce: Take equal quantities of fish stock, cockle juice and corn juice then bring to the boil. Dice the butter and drop into the liquid, wait till its half melted then hand blend till emulsified. Season to taste.

Plating Up

Warm the puree. Heat the pickled mushrooms, some raw sweetcorn kernels in a little fish stock, the drop in the cockles and finish with chives. To cook the fish, place a pan on the stove, wait till it’s hot and place as portion of the hapuka into the pan. Once it’s got a nice colour and crust drop in some knobs of butter and keep coating the fish in the foaming butter till it’s just cooked. Add a generous tablespoon of corn puree to the plate, add the mushrooms and cockles beside, add the fish on top. Place some small dots of Yuzu gel onto the fish and then garnish with some borage cress.

Chef Ryan Moore

Originally from the UK, Ryan Moore moved to New Zealand in December of 2018 and quickly fell in love with the country. As our head chef, Ryan wants to focus on the finest products the country has to offer, to help him showcase a menu lead by the local ingredients with flavours driven to the fullest. Ryan has extensive kitchen experience, which has exposed him to a wide range of culinary styles. With over 9 years of experience at Michelin starred restaurants across the United Kingdom, he has pushed his genuine love of food to the highest level. Ryan leads our kitchen with a commitment to excellence and we are delighted to have him at The Grove. Ryan’s passion for food and sourcing local ingredients will help lead our team in creating the best experiences for guests at The Grove.

Wine Match

Peter Yealands Chardonnay 2017 (Hawke’s Bay)

Exhibits guava, citrus and stone fruit flavours which combine seamlessly with the subtle toasty oak. The palate combines ripe fruit, lees complexity and subtle oak with a fresh elegant finish.

The Grove

The Grove is on a journey of discovery to encapsulate & define New Zealand food. Keenly focused on the seasonality of small New Zealand suppliers, to treat our ingredients with respect & extract deep flavour in our cooking. The Grove creates a beverage experience that allows diners to travel the world or witness the amazing quality and diversity of New Zealand wine.