Fish in coconut milk

As tradition built it

Serves 4. About 25 minutes.

Ingredients

• 600 g firm white fish fillet, cut into large pieces
• 400 ml coconut cream
• 1 lime, juiced
• thumb-sized piece ginger, finely sliced
• to taste salt
• a small handful kumu greens or spinach, to finish

Method

1. Warm the coconut cream in a wide pan with the ginger, over low heat, until fragrant, about 5 minutes: do not let it come to a hard boil.
2. Add the fish and simmer very gently, spooning the liquid over it, until just cooked through, roughly 8 to 10 minutes depending on thickness.
3. Stir in the greens for the final minute, just to wilt.
4. Season with salt and the lime juice off the heat, and serve immediately.

What a modern chef changes

The coconut cream's fat and protein held in a stable emulsion under sous vide control, rather than risked over a direct flame

Rung 4

Method

1. Extract the coconut cream by blending fresh grated coconut with a little warm water in a high-power blender, then pressing it through a chinois, rather than using a tinned cream, for a fresher, less separated result with real control over its thickness.
2. Cook the fish sous vide in the coconut cream at 55°C for 20 minutes, sealed in a bag, which holds the fish at a precise, gentle temperature the whole time and makes the traditional instruction to "keep it below a boil" a certainty rather than a matter of watching the pan.
3. Reduce a separate portion of the same coconut cream in an open pan until it thickens to a light nappe, to finish the dish as a sauce spooned over rather than a stew the fish sits in, changing the dish's presentation without changing its flavour logic at all.