Oh snap! Friends with Cooking Skillz just went next level, we got a REAL chef in tha house y’all! Yes I did just go there. Remember that NXNE Diary post about attending a six-course pop up dinner at The Mascot in Parkdale on the first night? Well, that was Chef Matthew Sullivan’s BOXED pop up restaurant – a locally sourced, ingredient-driven “restaurant to go” that roves around the city of Toronto. Matthew is an incredibly talented chef who has worked at some of the best restaurants in the world – The Fat Duck in England, Gramercy Tavern in NYC – and is launching a new pop up in February.
Although exact dates and the west end location are all to be confirmed, it will probably take place while I am on vacation in Europe (early-mid Feb), which is quite devastating to me. Why? This pop up will feature a modern asian menu of 7-10 courses for $100 a head. Only 8-10 seats will available each night for its five night run, so if you know what’s good for you …. Book.Your.Seat. Reservations can only be made by emailing [email protected], and seats are going fast so hurry!
Since I am so sad that I’m going to be missing out, I suckered Matthew in to having me over and teaching me how to make something that would reflect his new menu. Can you believe he said yes? Here it is…
Recipe: Cured white fish with chicken crackling, pickled daikon and apple
Fish cure:
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
(put aside 1/2 table spoon for radish)
Chicken crackling:
Chicken skin from thigh of chicken (most decent grocery stores will set aside skin for you and give it to you for free)
1/2 tablesoon kosher salt
Pickled daikon radish:
1 cup of julienne radish
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon of fish cure
Scallion Oil:
1/3 cup of thinly sliced scallions (green part only)
1 teaspoon brunoise of ginger
1 teaspoon brunoise of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
Preparation:
- Start by covering a 6oz fillet of white fish with the cure. Refrigerate for 45 mins
- Lay the chicken skin out on a sheet tray. Season with salt. Place sheet tray over chicken skin and weigh it down (a pot filled with water works) put the tray in a cold oven. Turn oven to 350 degrees. The gradual heat increase with render out the fat from the chicken skin and essentially fry it in it. Once the oven has reached temp, check the skin every 5 mins or so. The skin easily goes from perfect to burnt.
-Set skin aside to cool and reserve.
-For the radish just combine all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate. You should let the radish sit in the pickling liquid for at least 20 mins.
-Puree half the scallions with the olive oil and mix the rest of the ingredients.
- Rinse cure off fish, pat dry and slice into half inch slices. Line on plate.
- Drizzle some of the scallion oil over the fish and around the plate.
- Season fish with salt and pepper
- Add a very small handful of radish to each piece of fish
- Break chicken crackling in to bite sized pieces and arrange on and around the fish
- If you like finish the dish with a few drops of siracha around the plate and julienne apple (something tart like granny smith)
And there you have it! This was amazing, so try it! Thank you Chef Matthew!!
