Sustainable seafood cooking class with Executive Chef Lucas Granville of Grand Hyatt Singapore

I was invited to attend a very meaningful event recently, which is in lieu to Singapore's first Sustainable Seafood festival. A cooking class in ToTT with Executive Chef Lucas Granville of Grand Hyatt Singapore! Looks exciting right?

Before we get to the cooking part, you might ask, what is "Sustainable Seafood"? Well, it is basically seafood from either wild caught or farmed seafood sources which the amount harvest do not endanger the Eco-systems it was taken from. Not forgetting that the amount harvest should also allow the remaining populations to be self sustained or increased in future.

Singapore being one of the largest seafood consumer in APAC, eating up a whopping 140 million Kg of seafood a year! ~faint~ With more then 87% of the world's oceans overfished, it is estimated that the world's seafood supply will run out by 2048 if we don't do something about it!

So with this festival, the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) collaborates with over 30 enthusiastic businesses in Singapore to run the exclusive  "Pick The Right Catch" promotions. With this new movement, MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) hopes for responsible consumption of seafood by empowering suppliers, retailers, restaurants and consumers to "pick the right catch". Meaning to select seafood that has been vetted through stringent standards by MSC and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). Consumers should look out for signs on the packaging baring the MSC or ASC logos to ensure the products they purchase is indeed meeting these standards.(Oops, sorry about the blur shot heehee)

 

Okay, lets get cooking! Chef Lucas Granville showed us a total of 3 exciting dishes that day using all sustainable seafood. Each dish uses the respective seafood you see below:

Left is Pangasius, middle is Green-lipped Mussels, right is Pink Salmon

First dish was this Spicy fish soup with Lemongrass; Tom Yam Pla.I know, anything Tom Yum already sounds so delicious haha! This dish uses Pangasius(the one on the left) which is a popular and versatile fish that us widely used in Western & Asian cooking and is mainly farmed in Vietnam.

ToTT has kindly sponsored and prepared everything for us at the event, all neatly placed in each individual container, nice!

Recipe for Tom Yam Pla (Serves 3-4)

Ingredients 

200gm basa fish (Pangasius)

12 straw mushrooms

2 sticks of lemongrass

20gm galanga

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 litre chicken stock

25ml fish sauce

25ml lime juice

20gm sugar

2 tbsp Thai chili paste

4 chili red and green

40gm coriander with root

100gm Thai cherry tomatoes 

Method:

• In a pot, add chicken stock, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galanga, coriander root, Thai cherry tomatoes and straw mushrooms, gently simmer for 1 hour.

• Season with fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, chilli paste and then bring to a boil. Taste and ensure seasoning is correct.

• Add fish and cook for 2 minutes on a low heat.

• Remove from the heat, serve in a bowl and garnish with red, green chilli and coriander leaves.

The next dish Baked Garlic and Parsley Mussels. This dish uses the green-lipped or greenshell mussels, which are farmed on floating long-line ropes suspended in the clear water around New Zealand's unspoilt coastline. Cultured in the least ecologically sensitive areas, they feed off nutrients in the water column to developed into plump full flavored mussels. These mussels literally require no feeding and thus highly sustainable, a highly recommend choice!

Recipe for Baked Garlic and Parsley Mussels (served 3-4pax)

Ingredients:

24 1/2 shell green-lipped mussels

1 large peeled garlic clove

1 large peeled red shallot

Handful of Italian parsley leaves

Zest of a 1/4 lemon

100gm unsalted butter, softened

75gm white breadcrumbs

salt and pepper to taste

Sauce Tarator:

100gm peeled red peppers

2 slices white bread without crusts

80ml milk

40gm crushed walnuts

1 glove chopped garlic

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Pinch of chilli flakes

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Method: 

• To make the sauce tarator, combine all ingredients food processor and blend into a fine paste, season with salt and pepper and a few drops of lemon juice.

•  
• Refrigerate before serving.
• To prepare the mussels, combine garlic, shallots, lemon zest and parsley into a food processor and blend into a fine paste.
•  
• Add the softened butter and pulse, once all ingredients are combined, then add the breadcrumbs and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
•  
• Cover each mussels with some of the garlic and parsley butter.
•  
• Lay them on a baking tray and bake in an oven at 180C until they are crisp and golden brown.
• Serve immediately with Lemon and sauce tarator on the side.    

Looks so atas but yet super easy to prepare! All you need is a trusty blender haha!

Last dish we cooked that day was Salmon Pastrami, Shaved Fennel Salad, Radish, Lemon and Extra Virgin olive oil. This dish uses the Pink Salmon which is most abundant of the Pacific salmon and is found throughout the North Pacific.Besides, salmon is naturally rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, so eating more of this pink salmon is all good haha.

Recipe (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

Salmon Pastrami: 

4 of 200gm salmon portions

Spice Rub:
25gm salt
25gm brown sugar
25gm coarse black peppercorns
10gm coriander seeds
10gm juniper berries
5gm chilli flakes

Shaved Fennel Salad:
2 fennel bulb
4 whole red radish
Picked dill leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt & Pepper

Method: 

• Combine all ingredients together from the spice rub.
• Dust the spice rub over the salmon and remove to the side.
• Shave the fennel bulb and the radish with the mandoline into a bowl, add dill leaves, extra virgin olive oil and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
•  
• Heat a non stick frying pan, add a little oil and gently cook the salmon for a minute on each side, depending on the thickness of the fish. Remove and serve on a plate.
•  
• Arrange the fennel salad next to the salmon pastrami and drizzle a little olive oil over the salmon.

Check out the moist interior of the salmon! It is super flavorful with that spice rub! This has gotta be my most favorite dish among the three, since I am such a salmon fan haha!

Everything looks delicious right? And who can tell from the looks or even from the taste that these were made from sustainable seafood?

Besides having fun cooking at the event, I also learn a lot about being more aware of choosing the right seafood the next time I go grocery shopping. And I believe taking one step at a time to making this happen, to save our ocean. :) 

Okay, that's all folks. Just remember to do the right thing and "Pick The Right Catch"!