An Aussie spin on Rick Stein’s Spain

Mitchell Turner isn’t ashamed to say that before meeting Rick Stein, he was just a little intimidated by the international food celebrity.

Basque Country john dory fillet with pipis, peas, broad beans and asparagus at Bannisters, Port Stephens. Picture: David Griffen.

Mitchell Turner isn’t ashamed to say that before meeting Rick Stein, he was just a little intimidated by the international food celebrity, author, chef and restaurateur.

“I grew up watching Rick on television,” says the 31-year-old head chef of Rick Stein at Bannisters’ recently opened Port Stephens restaurant. “I was intimidated at first, but that was before I met him.

“He doesn’t rule with an iron fist. He’s not that sort of chef.”

Turner, who grew up in Wollongong, is right in the thick of his first summer as a head chef at the new restaurant. “The kitchen and food is what I wake up for,” he says. “But I have a lot of chefs I’m responsible for, so I do feel I’m something of an HR manager too.”

Having spent nearly four years at Bannisters Mollymook, two of them as sous chef to Paul Good­enough in Stein’s kitchen, Turner is familiar with the repertoire.

Mitchell Turner, head chef of Rick Stein's at Bannisters. Picture: David Griffen

The task is to take Stein’s recipes and interpret them by employing local seafood, mostly. He credits two years working for Edinburgh chef-restaurateurs Tom Kitchin and Dominic Jack as giving him the technical foundations to take his career to this level.

“When I went to Britain, the whole idea was to push myself,” he says. “I’m always inspired by what’s new in the restaurant world. People using native ingredients, new uses for parts of an animal that you would usually throw away — that kind of thing. Rick’s flexible in that he’s open to us bringing in new ideas, and it’s great to have someone who’s as excited as we are about produce.”

THE BACKSTORY

Although his menu has several exciting vegetarian dishes, a reflection, usually, of Stein’s travels in Asia for television, diners naturally think seafood when they think of a Rick Stein restaurant.

This dish is based on a recipe Stein developed in Spain.

“While the original is beautiful,” says Turner, “we adapted it to suit the current dining market in Australia and the seafood we have on offer in Port Stephens, such as the Nelson Bay pipis.

“There is always a touch of trepidation (in) presenting a chef one of his own dishes with your own flavours infused, but Rick said this was the best incarnation of the dish he had eaten, even better than in Spain itself.

“A lot of Australians have memories of collecting pipis on the beach as kids, but how many of us have enjoyed them in a modern dining environment? Rick and I see eye to eye when it comes to seafood — simple and uncomplicated. This is about finding out what fish and shellfish is at its best and not mucking about with it too much.”

THE PRODUCE

Key to any restaurant is the relationship between chef and suppliers. Naturally, the relationship between Turner and his fishmonger’s needs to be strong.

“I’ll chat with them regularly through the week to chase what’s best, and they will text me daily with what I can get from the market that day and where it’s been landed.”

As a rule, the pipis are sourced from Nelson Bay, NSW, while the john dory tend to come out of Eden, on the far south coast of the state.

THE METHOD

Start with the preparing the vegetables; fresh peas, broad beans and asparagus are a great combination. Pod the peas and broad beans and snap the woody base from the asparagus, take the top inch of the asparagus and set with the peas.

Thinly slice the asparagus stem into rounds and make a nice mix of the vegetables.

Next, dice brown shallots and sweat in a saucepan in olive oil until translucent. Add a few spoons of rice flour and slowly pour white wine and let reduce by half, stirring the shallots. Add fish stock and bring to the boil, add fresh pipis and the peas, broad beans and asparagus. Season with salt and chopped parsley once the pipis shells have opened.

Season the fish with olive oil and salt and grill on high heat.

Spoon the veloute mix into the bowl, top with the grilled fish, and enjoy.

THE TWIST

“Chris Turton, the senior sous chef, is coeliac, and that has shaped our thought process about all our dishes and how we can be as inclusive as possible,” says Turner. “Originally the recipe called for plain flour as the base of the vel­oute, but Chris and I modified it to rice flour. Arguably, the taste and texture are even more delicious than the original.”

THE PRICE

$44