For me, the per­fect entrée needs to tick as many fla­vour boxes as pos­sible without weigh­ing you down. It should send you into the fol­low­ing course with your taste buds enlivened and a sense of anti­cip­a­tion over what the kit­chen can pull off next. Everything we do at CoCo is fla­vour-driv­en and with a view to being one aspect of a much lar­ger experience.

This dish has a lot going on but is easy to pro­duce, with a visu­al wow factor and fla­vour and tex­tur­al con­trasts that come togeth­er seam­lessly in your mouth. It’s a dish that hopes to kick start a night that may include a shared meal with a group of friends, a clas­sic romantic movie for two, themed nights with very spe­cial industry guests, live music or late-night cocktails.

Wakame seared salmon with citrus, radish and edamame

Ingredients

Wakame seared salmon

• 2 tbsp dried, chopped wakame
• 2 tbsp cori­ander seeds, toasted
• 1 tbsp ses­ame seeds
• 1 tbsp flaky sea salt
• ½ tsp cay­enne pepper
• 60g sal­mon fil­let, sliced into a rectangle
• 1 egg white
• Can­ola oil for frying

Cit­rus custard

• 150ml cream
• 1 rose­mary stalk
• 150ml grapefruit juice
• 2 tbsp yuzu tea (avail­able from most Asi­an supermarkets)
• 1 whole egg
• 4 egg yolks

Gar­nish

• Edam­ame beans, shelled (avail­able from most Asi­an supermarkets)
• Radish, sliced
• Seg­ments of grapefruit, ruby grapefruit, orange, blood orange or any oth­er cit­rus fruit

Method

1. Grind the wakame and cori­ander seeds until you have a course powder, then mix through the ses­ame seeds, sea salt and cayenne.
2. For the cus­tard, heat the cream with the rose­mary stalk until almost boil­ing. Remove from the heat and allow to infuse for 20 minutes, then dis­card the rosemary.
3. In a sep­ar­ate pot, heat the grapefruit juice with the yuzu tea and whisk to com­bine until it has reached a sim­mer. Cook gently until the liquid has reduced to 100ml.
4. Whisk the egg and yolks, and pour in first the cream and then the cit­rus. Pour the mix into a heat­proof bowl, wrap in tin foil and place in a bak­ing tray filled with enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the bowl.
5. Bake at 160˚C for about 40 minutes or until the cus­tard thick­ens. Set in the fridge.
6. Mean­while, dip the sal­mon in the egg white and then roll in the wakame mix.
7. Fry the sal­mon on each side for about 25 seconds in a hot pan con­tain­ing a dash of can­ola oil. Remove and rest for 2 minutes, then slice into thirds.
8. Arrange the sal­mon on a plate with the spoons full of cus­tard, edam­ame, radish and cit­rus segments.

Serves 1