This recipe is based on one in the Australian Women's Weekly “Essential Seafood” cookbook. We tried it out on 5 June 2009, and we're still not really happy with it, but since we documented things, here it is, as a “work in progress”—if, indeed, we make further progress.

The original recipe was entitled “Potato-crusted snapper with curried tomatoes”, but there are a number of reasons to change the name: we used John Dory (called Saint-pierre in French), not snapper, the tomatoes aren't really “curried”, and the style almost exactly fits the terms gratin and coulis. Admittedly, a real coulis is strained, but I'd consider that a detail.

Preparation

Coulis

This can be done in advance and the coulis warmed up before serving.

quantity		ingredient		step
3 g		cummin seed		1
6 g		coriander		1
8 g		turmeric		1
3 g		garam masala		1
100 g		onion		2
7 g		garlic		2
7 g		ginger		2
		cooking oil		2
400 g		tomatoes (in can)		3
2		kaffir lime leaves, fresh		3
7 g		sugar		3
		salt		3
100 ml		coconut cream		4
		chopped fresh coriander leaves, for garnish		5

1. Grind the spices if necessary.

2. Chop the onions finely and fry in the oil until translucent. Add garlic and ginger, fry a little further. Add the spices and fry until fragrant.

3. Add tomatoes, sugar and salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Add the coconut cream and bring back to a simmer for a minute or two.

5. Just before serving, garnish with chopped coriander leaf.

Gratin

quantity		ingredient		step
430 g		John Dory fillets		1
270 g		Potatoes, finely sliced		2
2 g		cummin seed		3
2 g		turmeric		3
3 g		garlic		3
20 g		ghee		3

1. Fry the fillets in oil until cooked.

2. Place in an oven dish and cover with potatoes. Sprinkle with the spices and ghee and grill for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are browned and crispy.

3. Serve with the coulis.

Comments

This didn't taste bad, but there were definitely things that we would improve on. Yvonne didn't like the ginger in the coulis, and I thought that the spices on the gratin were wrong. There was also definitely too much ghee. And there was at least 3 times as much coulis as we needed. I did like the flavour of the lime leaves, something that I should experiment with more. Here's what we would do next time:

quantity		ingredient		step
3 g		cummin seed		1
6 g		coriander		1
8 g		turmeric		1
3 g		garam masala		1
100 g		onion		2
15 g		garlic		2
		cooking oil		2
400 g		tomatoes (in can)		3
2		kaffir lime leaves, fresh		3
7 g		sugar		3
		salt		3
100 ml		coconut cream		4
		chopped fresh coriander leaves, for garnish		5

quantity		ingredient		step
1 kg		John Dory fillets		2
600 g		Potatoes, finely sliced		3
20 g		ghee		4