Sesame & nut-crusted zander with sweet & sour vegetables

Have I told you who heads up the list of my favourite chefs in Austria? A woman. Oh yes, a woman. You don't see that a lot in the world of gourmet gastronomy, but Johanna Maier has certainly earned her 19 Gault Millau points, which put her on par with Alain Ducasse, Olivier Rollinger, Guy Savoy and all those big names everybody murmurs with awe.
I bought her cookbook not long after our extended stay at her restaurant cum hotel in the pretty Austrian Alps, but have not been cooking much of it - mainly because some ingredients are quite difficult to get a hold of. Even after I had plucked up the courage to confide in my local fishmonger, it took me the better half of a year to get my hands on some zander (the details of which you can read here).
And I already hear you say: "sweet and sour? i'm so over that" - well, I can assure you that there are mountains between what you avoid to order at your local Chinese, and this Asian-inspired sauce of Johanna Maier.
Although my sesame-nut crust did not turn out as nice as hers (visually at least), I was still quite pleased with the outcome. Not sure I would go for zander again, it's quite tedious to eat with its many fine bones, but I enjoyed the overall fusion of flavours here. Tempted to serve a variation as an amuse-bouche: reinforce the sweet & sour notes in form of soy and honey and bank on the strong visual impact of a tiny fish fillet crusted with sesame and nuts - it will be stunner, I assure you, and if you're good, I might even let you partake ;-)

My interpretation of Johanna Maier's
Sesame & nut-crusted zander with sweet & sour vegetables
(serves 4)

For the sesame-nut crust:
2 macadamia nuts
2 hazelnuts
2 pecan nuts
2 tbsp sesame
½ tbsp crushed pepper

For the fish:
4 zander fillets á 200 g
juice of 1 lemon
60 g flour
4 tbsp milk
olive oil for frying

For the sweet & sour mushroom sauce:
200 g shitake
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
200 ml water
2 tbsp soy sauce
80 g butter

For the vegetables:
1 tbsp olive oil
100 g baby chestnut mushrooms (cleaned, but whole)
100 g shitake mushrooms (roughly sliced)
2 handful bean sprouts
150 g baby leaf spinach
2 handful cherry tomatoes (use a mix of yellow and red if you can)

Prepare the crust by combining the nuts in a pan, roasting them very carefully, making sure they don't brown too much. Transfer to a food processor and grind with a few pulses. Stir in the pepper and sesame and set aside.
For the sauce, sauté the mushrooms in the butter, add the honey and deglaze with the lemon juice and vinegar. Pour in the water and soy sauce and simmer for about 15 minutes. Drain into a sauce dish or other recipient, using a fine sieve or a strainer.
Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper, then dunk the skin sides sequentially in the flour, the milk and the sesame-nut mix. Heat the oil in a pan, fry the fillets skin/crust-side down, then place in the pre-heated oven (160 C) and let rest for 4-5 minutes until cooked.
In the meantime, heat butter in a pan to prepare the vegetables, add the sprouts and mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Add the spinach and tomatoes ate the last moment, just enough for the tomatoes to warm up and the spinach to start to wilt.

Arrange the vegetables on plates, with the fillets on top, and spoon over the sauce. Serve immediately.

Comments

[Petra Holzapfel]

Hallo Johanna,

das klingt sehr fein. Ich liiiebe Zander (danke für die Ausführungen - ich hab fürs IMBB nur die Bezeichnung "pike perch" gefunden) :-) Ich entferne die Gräten immer vorher mit einer Pinzette - da mein Mann angelt, bin ich das schon von Forellen, Saiblingen und Äschen gewöhnt und meine Familie entsprechend verwöhnt, grätenlosen Fisch vorgesetzt zu bekommen...

[johanna]

nein, so verwoehnt werden die meinen nicht, obwohl ich das wohl bald auch machen muss, wenn der kleine max dann bei uns mitisst. Ich nehme an Du zupfst sie aus dem rohen Fisch? 'ne ganz schoene aufgabe!
Pike-perch hatte ich auch aus meinem mehrsprachigen Woerterbuch fuer die Gastronomie... das ist aber ein riesiger Fisch, der fuer uns drei verschwendet waer... letztendlich hab ich dann Zander gefunden, gibt's allerdings nur selten und nur auf Vorbestellung!

[johanna]

for all english-speaking readers, zander is sometimes traded as pike-perch. i have been told that the latter is caught considerably larger than zander and as they're sold as whole fish only, this was not an option for me to use. but if zander has never been heard of at your local fish counter, then ask for pike-perch, you might have more luck...