Ocean Made Chef: July

Abalone grilled over Melaleuca, shiitake broth and flaxseed cracker

Shaun Quade, Lûmé

Serves 4

Shaun has been using Ocean Made since he opened Lûmé in 2015. “Ocean Made are so open to everything,” he says, “we’re on the phone to them everyday. They are really good to work with and they bend over backwards for us. The quality of what they send us is always pristine.”

Ingredients

Abalone
2 x large green lip abalone (it’s best to order the abalone from your Ocean Made fishmonger)
30g shio koji

Shiitake Broth
25 gm dried shiitake powder
1.5 lt water
2 ea brown cardamom pods, crushed
30 gm dried kombu
White soy to season

Flaxseed Cracker
70 gm flaxseed
180 gm water
40 gm abalone cooking liquor
5 gm dried shiitake powder
Sunflower oil, for frying

Method

Abalone

Remove the abalone from its shell using a large metal spoon. Trim the innards, liver and skirt from the meat using a sharp pair of scissors.
Wash the abalone well under cold water to remove any trace of slime and sand.
Spread the koji paste over the abalone and place into a small vacuum bag. Seal in a vac pac machine on its highest setting then leave the abalone in the fridge for 8 hours to marinate.
To cook, place the abalone in a water-bath set at 90C for 12 hours.
Remove from the bath and chill in iced water to bring the internal temperature down to 4C.
Drain the excess cooking liquor and set aside for the flaxseed.

Shiitake Broth
To prepare the broth, place all the ingredients into a heavy pot and bring to 90C over a medium heat. Simmer at this temperature for 20 minutes before straining the broth through a fine filter. Season with white soy to taste.

Flaxseed Cracker
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and let stand for 30 mins to thicken. Spread the mixture out thinly over baking paper and place in a dehydrator until crisp and dry. If you don’t have a dehydrator, leave it on the tray on a bench overnight to dry. Break the crisp sheets into smaller pieces. Heat the sunflower oil to 160C and fry the crisps for approx. 10 seconds before draining on paper towel.

To Serve

Brush the abalone with oil and place on a BBQ fueled with melaleuca (you can use eucalyptus if you can’t find melaleuca) charcoal. Colour the abalone evenly on both sides.
Just before taking the abalone off of the BBQ, place a handful of fresh melaleuca (or eucalyptus) leaves onto the coals and allow the smoke and flames to engulf the abalone.
Remove from the BBQ. Carve the abalone into nice thick slices and place into individual serving bowls.
Garnish the abalone with some sauteed shiitake mushrooms and any available sea succulents* such as samphire, pigs face or sea blite and a small slice of preserved lemon. Gently pour the broth over these ingredients. Serve with the flaxseed crackers on the side.

*Fennel or dill can work as an alternative to sea succulents.

About Chef

Shaun Quade is one of Melbourne’s most creative and progressive chefs. He’s worked as a pastry chef, so knows that detail is everything; he has owned and operated his own business since 2015, so can see the big picture and he ultimately loves working with Australian produce and telling its story through his perspective.

Shaun grew up in Queensland and then formed his skills in the kitchens of acclaimed Australian restaurants such as Quay, Biota and Royal Mail, which is where he earned a reputation as a pastry legend.

Since opening Lûmé in South Melbourne, he has worked hard to cement it as an important contemporary dining room in Melbourne and Australia. He and his team create consistently changing menus of many courses, “We have a tasting menu that can change by the day, it’s very seasonal and Ocean Made are really good at working with us on that. We have amazing seafood in Australia and we use it on our menu all the time. Ocean Made get what we’re looking for.”

Lûmé
226 Coventry Street, Sth Melbourne
restaurantlume.com

Why this recipe?

“Yes, I’d have to say this dish is for the serious cook,” says Shaun Quade, “and it says a lot about what Lûmé does.” What does Lûmé do? “People think we do weird things. We do take an avant garde approach but everything starts with the produce and its taste, then we move on to textures and presentation.”
Shaun says that his baseline for every dish is about flavour, “it has to be delicious otherwise there’s no point.”
With this recipe, he suggests to plan a day ahead, saying that it’s the abalone that needs to be prepared the day earlier and taking the time is worth it. “It’s a smoky-flavoured, barbecue dish and the textures work so well together, it’s worth giving this a go.”
Shaun has been using Ocean Made since he opened Lûmé in 2015.
“Ocean Made are so open to everything,” he says, “we’re on the phone to them everyday. They are really good to work with and they bend over backwards for us. The quality of what they send us is always pristine.”

Abalone grilled over Melaleuca, shiitake broth and flaxseed cracker

Method

About Chef

Why this recipe?

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