Pirarucu de casaca

As tradition built it

Pirarucu de casaca

Serves 6 . Soak the salted fish 6 hours or overnight, then about 1 hour to assemble

Ingredients

• 1.5kg salted, dried pirarucu
• 400g farinha d'água
• 400ml coconut milk
• 5 ripe plantain, sliced
• 2 large onion
• 5 ripe tomato
• 2 red bell peppers pepper
• half a bunch cheiro-verde
• 4, sliced boiled egg
• 200g olives
• 200g prunes (sometimes)
• 150g fried potato straws (sometimes)
• a drizzle olive oil, to drizzle

Method

1. Soak the salted fish (1.5kg) for around 6 hours, changing the water several times to draw out excess salt, then drain and flake it.
2. Hydrate the farinha d'água (400g) in the coconut milk (400ml).
3. Fry the sliced ripe plantain (five) until golden.
4. Sauté the flaked fish with onion, tomato, pepper and cheiro-verde.
5. Build the dish in the serving vessel as distinct layers: hydrated farinha, sautéed fish, fried plantain, boiled egg, olives, sometimes prunes and fried potato straws, finished with a drizzle of olive oil.
6. Repeat for a second layer.

What a modern chef changes

Home-cured cod or monkfish, sous vide poach

Rung 06

Method

1. Salt-cure your own firm white fish, cod or monkfish, the two credentialed British substitutes for a fish that cannot itself be bought as food in the UK, following exactly the same thick-sheet, both-sides-salted method used for pirarucu itself.
2. Poach it sous vide at a controlled low temperature after soaking, for a moister, more evenly flaked result than the traditional boil-and-flake method gives.
3. Pass the coconut milk used to hydrate the farinha through a chinois for a genuinely silkier base.
4. Dehydrate a portion of the farinha itself briefly before assembly, for a crumb with real crunch against the softer layers around it rather than one that turns pasty once combined with the coconut milk.