Recipe: Christine Manfield and Ronith Arlikatti’s Kingfish Crudo (With All the Trimmings)

As a veteran chef and prolific cookbook author, Christine Manfield knows the powerful role of spice in uniting flavours from around the world. She’s penned several guides to Indian cooking since the mid-1990s, and has mentored culinary figures including food critic and TV personality Melissa Leong.

The pair recently appeared together at a one-off dinner party thrown by Broadsheet at Prahran’s Hopper Joint. Hosted by Leong, the sold-out event saw Manfield join head chef Ronith Arlikatti and his kitchen team, bonding over the restaurant’s family-style Sri Lankan cuisine while sampling wines from Barossa Valley’s Cat Amongst the Pigeons.

Now Manfield is sharing one of the night’s recipes with Broadsheet readers. And it’s one in which spice – specifically the humble curry leaf – really ties everything together. Developed in tandem with Arlikatti, Spencer Gulf kingfish crudo is a delicately textured, full-flavoured entrée with global touches like nectarine acharu, curry leaf kosho, fennel thoran and curry leaf oil.

“It’s inspired by what I think is the future of many restaurants, which is fusion,” Manfield says. “If done right, it’s an amazing combination. This one is a mix of three of my favourite cuisines: Indian, French and Japanese. In Australia, we’re pretty well-versed with being able to combine these flavours effortlessly, so it’s drawing on old and new influences and interpreting them with a very of-the-moment presentation.”

She compares it to the appearance of a moss pond on top of the sliced kingfish, with the fish just shining through like little jewels. The dish’s flavours also send us to Sri Lanka and Peru.

The acharu yields both pickled nectarine slices and a dressing, while kosho is a popular Japanese seasoning and thoran is a dry vegetable dish in South India that can showcase any given veggie (in this case, fennel). Manfield points out that a thoran is the equivalent of a Sri Lankan mallung, tying it back to the theme of the original dinner. It also balances the more aggressive acharu, kosho spice and acidity.

“The hiramasa kingfish lends itself to being eaten raw, or very lightly pickled. And the acharu is the pickle – a pickle is essential to anything on the Sri Lankan table,” she says.
“The pickle brings a really lovely freshness, acidity and spiciness, lending itself very well to the texture and fat content of the fish.”

That careful balancing act is completed by pairing the dish with the Fat Cat Pinot Noir Rosé from Cat Amongst the Pigeons. It’s got just the right savoury notes and textural elements that you want, without any off-putting sweetness. Think light and lengthened berry notes, which play well with raw fish and spicy flavours alike.

“The most important part of a dish is the component that brings everything together,” says Manfield. “In this instance, we’ve got those spicy notes and the savoury notes and the nice, gentle fruitiness. And I think all of those are reflected well with the Pinot Noir Rosé, because it has the body to hold up to it but no overriding tannins.”

Kingfish crudo with nectarine acharu, curry leaf kosho, fennel thoran and curry leaf oil

Makes 1 serving
Prep/cooking time: 1.5 hours (plus additional time for infusing, fermenting and pickling)

Ingredients:

80g Spencer Gulf hiramasa kingfish
Fresh fennel
sea salt flakes

Curry leaf kosho
60g curry leaves
50g lime zest
30g salt

Curry leaf oil
fresh curry leaves
ricebran oil

Nectarine acharu
100g blood orange juice

37.5ml rice wine vinegar
25g coconut sugar
3g chilli pieces
2g mustard seeds
30g nectarine, sliced finely without cheeks

Fennel thoran
10ml oil
10g mustard seeds
300g whole fennel
5g turmeric
40g desiccated coconut
shallots

Method:

Make kosho by blending curry leaves, lime zest, and salt, leaving to ferment overnight at room temperature.

For the curry leaf oil, infuse the fresh curry leaves into ricebran oil, then heat and let sit overnight. The next day, strain out the oil, which should turn green.

Make acharu liquid by mixing all ingredients (except nectarine) together. Add sliced nectarine and set aside for a few hours.

To make fennel thoran, add oil to the pan and then mustard seeds. After it splutters, add your remaining ingredients and cook until fennel is soft (around five minutes).

For kingfish, clean down to fillets and cut sashimi-style into 5mm slices across the fillet.

To assemble, spread thoran in a very thin layer at the bottom of a rimmed plate or very shallow bowl. Layer the sliced kingfish flatly over top, with the slices just touching each other in a vertical row while covering the thoran. Between each slice of fish, slide a slice of the pickled nectarine. Add tiny blobs of the kosho to each piece of fish, then season with sea salt flakes (not table salt or rock salt). Finally, shake the nectarine acharu and curry leaf oil together and squirt it over the fish, letting it pool around the sides. Then scatter fresh fennel on the very top. Serve with a paired glass of Fat Cat Pinot Noir Rosé from Cat Amongst the Pigeons.

This article was produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Cat Amongst the Pigeons.