Aotearoa and Australia · Volume 01, Fire, the Stone Trap and the Reef Garden
Namas
Torres Strait
Illustration
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Researched
- 22 sources cited
Fish cured raw in citrus acid rather than heat, another of Evelyn Billy's named dishes, and, on the evidence this atlas has already gathered across its Pacific volumes, a genuine relative of poisson cru, kokoda and ika mata, the same technique family under different island names.
As tradition built it
Serves 10 to 15 · 30 minutes
Ingredients
The method as the tradition gives it, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them, lead dishes first.
- 500g fish, sliced thin
- 1 lime, or to taste citrus juice
Method
- Fish sliced thin, covered in citrus juice, left to cure until the flesh turns opaque.
What a modern chef changes
Citrus as the controlled cooking medium
Rung 6
Method
- Extract a clean, pulp-free citrus juice through a chinois, controlling exactly how much acid reaches the fish rather than relying on a hand-squeezed juice's inconsistency.
- Time the cure precisely, tasting at intervals, since citrus curing is a real cooking process with a real endpoint, not an indefinite marinade.
- Serve immediately once cured, as tradition already does, rather than holding the dish and letting the citrus continue working past its best point.