Lucky dip - George Calombaris and barramundi

"Learning how to cook fish properly can be daunting but once you master it, your confidence will soar. Getting it right is all about controlling the temperature. The trick to this warm vinaigrette lies in extracting the spicy flavour from the chorizo."

A while back Aldi were selling off a series of small Penguin cookery books - Lantern Cooking Classics - so I bought four of them. Each one concentrated on a few recipes from a particular chef/cook. This one was on George Calombaris.

All Australians will know who he is, but maybe not others. He is one of our big celebrity chefs, probably most famous for being a judge on Master Chef, but before that he was a much praised and celebrated chef with some very well reviewed restaurants. And indeed he still does - in fact he has a mini empire of some 20 restaurants from very high end to casual dining. He has also had his fair share of controversy. I can't remember the details now but basically lots of his staff were underpaid because of the company payment system being wrong. It cost him heaps. It also caused him to thump someone at a footy match because the guy abused him. Anyway all sorted now I think.

But back to food. He is Greek of course with a name like that, but with a bit of Italian too. Greek is what he is known for though. And I guess the Greeks are big into fish, and so here we have fish.

Before I finish with the recipe just a word or two on celebrity chefs. It's easy to say that they are a modern phenomenon and the ubiquity of them certainly is. There are certainly more of them and they are just everywhere. But there have been famous chefs since at least the 17th century I think - and I'm pretty sure that many of them would have led similarly celebrity like lives. The modern era of the celebrity chef though, probably began after WW2 with Elizabeth David et al. And it was interesting to read Nigella the other day saying that her friend and mentor Anna del Conte was not famous because she had done no television. Very probably true. TV and glossy cookbooks - that's how you get to be famous these days I think. At least Calombaris was a chef of renown before.

So here is the recipe - can't find it online, which goes to show that you can't find everything online.

CRISP-SKINNED BARRAMUNDI WITH WARM CHORIZO, CAPER AND ANCHOVY VINAIGRETTE

Ingredients

4 x 200g barramundi fillets (about 1.5cm thick - skin on)

sea salt flakes

100ml vegetable oil

40g unsalted butter

1 tablespoon lemon thyme leaves (optional)

thinly sliced flat-leaf parsley and oregano sprigs to serve

Warm Chorizo, caper and anchovy vinaigrette

100m extra-virgin olive oil

130g good-quality chorizo, skin removed, coarsely crumbled into small pieces

2 golden shallots, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

2 anchovy fillets, chopped

1 tablespoon salted capers, rinsed, drained

12 kalamata olives, pitted

sherry vinegar to taste

3 tablespoons shredded flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC fan-forced (200C conventional).

2. Remove the fish from the fridge 10 minutes before cooking. Pat the fish dry with paper towel. Season the skin with salt.

3. Heat the oil in an ovenproof non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Place the fish in the pan, skin-side down, and gently press on each fillet with a spatula for 20-30 seconds to help the skin crisp evenly. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast the fish for 5-6 minutes or until almost cooked through.

4. Remove the fish from the oven and place the pan over medium-high heat. Working quickly, carefully turn the fish over and add the butter to the pan. When the batter starts to sizzle , add the lemon thyme (if using), then gently swirl the pan until the butter turns nut-brown and the fish is just cooked. Remove from the heat. Spoon the butter over the fish to baste several times.

5. For the vinaigrette, heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo, then toss until the fat starts to render and the meat is browned. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chorizo and set aside. Reduce the heat to low, then add the shallot and garlic and stir until softened, 1-2 minutes. Return the chorizo to the pan. Add the anchovies, capers and olives and toss for 30 seconds. Stir in the sherry vinegar and swirl the pan , then immediately remove from the heat.

6. Put the fish, skin-side up, onto warmed plates, with the pan juices spooned over each fillet. Scatter the vinaigrette with the parsley, then spoon around each plate. Scatter with parsley and oregano sprigs and serve immediately.

A longish recipe but when you break it down I guess it's not that complicated. Meat and fish together - interesting.

I'm being very intermittent and not very inspired with this blog at the moment. Apologies - put it down to Christmas, visitors and a sore back. Too many interruptions, can't think inspiring thoughts. Hopefully in a week or so's time I will be back to normal.