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Loin of Cornish Hake
With polonaise, purple sprouting broccoli, marquis potatoes and saffron cream
This dish is made up of some characteristic elements. Polonaise is an old-style finish for vegetables, marquis potatoes are a classic preparation of piped mashed potato. A white wine sauce is enhanced with a little saffron.
Maris piper potatoes, one of the best for mashing, are boiled and passed through a fine sieve to create a smooth mash. Egg yolks are used to enrich the mash and it is delicately flavoured with nutmeg. Piped into rosettes it is then baked and filled with tomato concasse.
Hake is a large fish caught off the deep Cornish waters. It looks tricky but is surprisingly easy to fillet and will yield thick loin steaks. It was certified sustainable by the Marine Stewards Council in 2015 and its creamy flesh suits many cooking methods and recipes. Alternatives are Cod, Haddock and Pollock.
Purple sprouting broccoli is a great UK vegetable currently in season. It has boundless flavour and is really good for you.
Chefs note - Concasse tomatoes is a technique for peeling and deseeding tomatoes. Take whole tomatoes, remove the core with the point of a sharp knife, then cut a cross in the skin on the top. Place into boiling water for 10 seconds or until they start to blister then immediately place in iced water. The skins should just fall off. Cut each tomato into quarters, carefully remove the seeds and dry each quarter on a piece of kitchen towel. Finally roughly chop the tomatoes.
For the marquis potatoes (10 portions)
For the fish and polonaise crust
For the saffron cream
For the vegetables
Prepare the vegetables
1. Make the tomato concasse (see Chef’s note), prepare the carrots and trim the broccoli.
Prepare the Marquis potatoes
2. Peel and boil the potatoes until soft (18-20mins). Allow them to drain well but push them through a sieve while they are still warm. They can be mashed without the use of a sieve but they need to be as smooth as possible.
3. Mix in the egg yolks, nutmeg and season with salt and pepper.
4. Before the mash cools down completely and using a star shape piping nozzle, pipe rosettes of potato onto a lined baking tray ready for baking.
Make the polonaise crust
5. Finely grate the hard-boiled eggs and melt the butter and mix with the breadcrumbs, and parsley to make the crust.
6. Place the hake loins on a baking sheet skin side down. Brush on a little extra butter and top with plenty of the polonaise crust.
Make the sauce
7. Soak the saffron strands in a little hot water about 10ml.
8. In a pan sweat the shallots in the butter, add the white wine and reduce by half.
9. Add the cream and simmer until thickened. Finally pour in the saffron with the water.
10. Keep warm on a low heat.
To cook and assemble
11. Pre heat the oven to 180oC. Place the fish in the oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes until cooked all the way through and golden brown on top.
12. Halfway through cooking place the potatoes in the same oven and cook until golden.
13. Boil the carrots until tender and quickly boil the broccoli or steam it.
14. Remove the fish from the oven and place on the plate. Fill the cavity of each potato with tomato concasse and arrange next to the fish.
15. Garnish with broccoli and carrots and dress with the saffron cream.
This recipe was brought to you by…
Warren O’Connor
Head Chef at Cheltenham Racecourse
This recipe was brought to you by…
Lawrie Jeffries
Head Chef at Warwick Racecourse
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