MIDNIGHT SHANGHAI'S BLUE COD SHUMAI
WITH WHIPPED COD ROE, CAVIAR, AND SEAWEED CRACKER
Midnight Shanghai believes Chinese food has a lot more to offer than what Cantabrians are used to experiencing. The chefs combine European cooking techniques and hand-picked local ingredients that make sense together and educate people about how casual and modern Shanghai-style dining can be. New Zealand’s abundance of fresh seafood means head chef Cian Curtin uses his international experience to put forward the taste of the South Pacific, presented in a traditional Chinese fashion with a Midnight Shanghai spin. Serves 4.
Whipped Cod Roe
150g white bread 150g cod roe
1⁄2 red onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic 500ml olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
X.O Oil
250ml oil
150g X.O sauce
Squid Ink Dumpling Dough
125ml of lukewarm water 250g of strong flour
2 tsp of squid ink
Blue Cod Filling
250g blue cod fillets
120g prawn meat
2 tablespoons of salmon roe 1 spring onion, finely sliced 5g of ginger grated
2g of salt
2g of pepper
The day prior, add your squid ink to water. Slowly add this mix to flour, mixing by hand. When a dough starts to form, lightly flour the surface and knead for five minutes. Wrap with cling wrap – you’ll need to let this rest in the fridge overnight.
Soak white bread in water. Squeeze water out of the bread, add all ingredients minus the oil to a food processor.
While blending, slowly add 250ml of olive oil to emulsify. Remove mix from the food processor and pass through a fine sieve. Return purée to the food processor, and slowly add remaining oil. Season this with salt, white pepper, and juice of one lemon.
In a pan, heat your oil to 60°C. Add this to your X.O sauce, and blend with a stick blender. Strain through a sieve with a blue cloth and set aside.
Add the blue cod, prawn, ginger, salt, and pepper to the food processor. Remove from blender and fold through spring onion and salmon roe.
Warm two spoons of cod roe in a thick based saucepan – you don’t want to cook it as it will thicken; just gently heat. Steam the shumai for four minutes. Put the warmed roe in the centre, and then use the back of the spoon to push it out into a flat circle. Place three shumai in the centre and garnish the plate with salmon roe, X.O oil, and coriander.