Umami fish tartare with lime, chilli crisp and rice crackers
Serves 4-6 as a starter or snack, 2 as a meal
Ingredients:
200g wild white fish fillet, boneless and skinless (I’ve used silver trevally but you could also use a wild kingfish or snapper)
20g (approx 1/4 cup) green onion tops
80g (approximately 1/4 cup) tomato, seeds removed
10g de-seeded jalapeño or long green chilli
1 garlic clove, peeled
15g chilli crisp (Lao Gan Ma is the OG and my favourite)
20ml (1 Tbs.) white soy sauce*
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
3g (1/2 tsp.) fresh ginger
30ml fresh lime juice
30ml extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon finely chopped coriander
*swap for light soy sauce if you can’t find white soy sauce
Rice crackers:
3-4 sheets rice paper
Fry oil
Method:
Using a sharp knife cut out any dark red blood line on the fish fillet by first splitting it down the center, along the bloodline and then carefully cutting it out and discarding it. Dice the fish into a roughly 1cm dice. Cover and keep refrigerated until you are ready to mix.
To make the rice crackers, heat a shallow and wide sauté pan or wok with about 300-400ml of neutral oil for frying. When the oil is hot and “shimmering” on the surface, carefully drop in the rice sheet. It should immediately bubble up and go from being clear to being bubbly and opaque in just a few seconds. Once it has bubbled up and become crisp, use tongs to flip it and fry on the other side for another 3-5 seconds then remove from the pan and drain on a wire rack. Repeat until you’ve used all the rice paper.
Thinly slice your green onion tops. Chop the tomato similar size to the fish. Very finely chop the jalapeno and grate the garlic and ginger on a microplane.
Combine the fish with all the remaining ingredients (except the rice paper) and toss to combine. Serve immediately with the rice crackers to scoop onto and eat together.