Wood Fired Salmon With Fried Cauliflower Noodle, Halva Mayonnaise
By Shane Delia and George Calombaris
St Katherines

Portion salmon into 150 gram, round ‘barrel’ shaped portions. Place in fridge until required.
Halva mayonnaise: Using a food processor combine eggs, mustard, halva, lemon juice and seasoning and blend until smooth. Through the feed hole, slowly trickle in the vegetable oil ensuring the sauce emulsifies. Refrigerate until required.

Using a small saucepan, place walnuts and sugar syrup and cook on a low to medium heat for approximately 30 minutes. Strain the walnuts and place walnuts in 160°C oil and cook until golden. Take out of oil and allow to cool on absorbent paper. Once cooled crush coarsely in a mortar and pestle, season with salt and pepper and finish with finely chopped parsley. Keep in a hermetically sealed container and refrigerate.

Cauliflower noodle: Finely shave one cauliflower and reserve. Using a medium sized pot on a low-medium heat, melt butter and add cauliflower, sauté gently until soft, and add milk. Stirring occasionally, continue to cook until cauliflower is tender. Season heavily with salt and pepper. Process in a high-powered blender until smooth, pass through a fine chinois.

Place 300 ml of the cauliflower milk in a medium sized saucepan; add agar agar and cook gently to a simmer, whisking continuously ensuring all agar agar has dissolved. Pass through a fine chinois and pour into a squeezy bottle. Arrange an ice bath and submerge the hoses until required. Squeeze the bottle into the hoses until they are three quarters full. Submerge into the ice bath for about a minute.

To extract the noodle from the hose, use a universal adaptor for an ISI siphon that has been charged once with a cream bulb, and carefully place the hose into the adaptor and release pressure slowly and the noodle will come out quite easily. Repeat this process 4 more times. Refrigerate until required.

Cauliflower crumbs: Shave the top of the remaining cauliflower with the tip of your knife until you are left with what will resemble something like couscous. Using a deep fryer set at 160°C cook the cauliflower until golden, strain onto absorbent paper. Set aside until required.

To finish the noodle, roll it in a tray containing the fried cauliflower crumbs until it is coated.
Fennel garnish: Trim pieces of baby fennel to the size of plates you will be using. Reserve the fronds on the top of the stems as garnish. Refrigerate until required.

To cook salmon: Season and lightly dress salmon with olive oil, place on a tray and cook in wood-fired oven at 400C internal temperature. Rotate tray 180 degrees to regulate the temperature every 30 seconds. It needs to cook for approximately 2 – 2.5 minutes for medium rare.

Once salmon is cooked, roll in 100 grams halva mayonnaise and then 150 grams candied walnuts.
Cauliflower foam: Using 500 ml of the remaining cauliflower milk from the noodles place contents in a medium sized jug, add soy lecithin and blend using a stick blender until bubbles/froth resinate to the surface of the liquid.

To assemble: In the middle of a black main course plate, place the fried noodle, on one side place the salmon and finish the other side with a piece of the baby fennel. Using a squeezy bottle apply the halva as dots randomly scattered on the plate. Spoon some of the cauliflower air in various parts of the plate and garnish with the fennel fronds. Serve immediately.

"recipes from Wild Water and Woodsmoke, available for purchase from The Salmon Shop"