JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Alan Wong's butterfish dish is made with a stuffing of misoyaki butterfish and a wrapping of pancetta.
|
|
Beyond misoyaki, a better butterfish
The first thought for many cooks when presented with a nice piece of butterfish is to turn it into misoyaki, that Japanese teishoku standard and local favorite.
Too easy, chef Alan Wong says.
Farmer Series Dinner
» When: Wednesday; seatings from 5 to 10 p.m.
» Place: Alan Wong's Restaurant
» Cost: $75, $105 with wine pairings
» Call: 949-2526
|
Especially since the fish, normally available only frozen, is now being farmed in Kona. Wong is featuring fresh butterfish and halibut from TroutLodge Marine Farms at his Farmer Series Dinner on Wednesday.
Jim Parsons and Jackie Zimmerman of TroutLodge will be his guests, available to talk to diners about the fish, the newest Big island aquaculture product.
They grow the fish at the Keahole Point Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. Supplies are limited, and the fish are small, in the 2- to 3-pound range. Wong says he brings in just one butterfish and one halibut each day for his King Street Restaurant. He usually served both fish whole -- the butterfish is steamed Chinese style, the halibut pan-roasted -- so they go to the first people to order them.
For Wednesday's dinner, though, his cooks will debone the fish, using the trimmings to make Misoyaki Butterfish, which will be stuffed inside the whole fish. Slices of the stuffed fish will then be wrapped with pancetta and accompanied by braised oxtail (complete with peanuts). "I didn't want the misoyaki to be too strong -- that's too easy," Wong said.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Chef Alan Wong explains the finer points of butterfish, also called sablefish or black cod.
|
|
The dish is designed to be served with a red wine -- Eagle Point Ranch Girasole Syrah -- unusual for such a delicate fish.
"The butteriness of the fish -- the pancetta, the oxtail, the red wine, they all go really well," he said.
The five-course meal will also feature other products from aquaculture operations at the Natural Energy Laboratory: a sashimi dish of Kona kampachi, butterfish, halibut and abalone; Seared Kona Kampachi with Oil-Poached Big Island Abalone; Butter-Poached Kona Lobster with Dungeness Crab Pasta; and a dessert by pastry chef Michelle Karr called Poamoho Farms Mango Trio.
The dinner is one in a bimonthly series featuring local farmers and food producers.
Wong says his aim is not only to showcase local products, but also to do his part to encourage the growth of these homegrown businesses so that we can all get more of our food from sources closer to home.
"If you go to a school and you ask the kids, 'Where does beef come from?' They're going to say, 'Times.'
"'Where does chicken come from?' 'Foodland.'"
Even though those kids aren't likely to be at his dinner, Wong hopes that the trickle-down effect will eventually change attitudes and spread knowledge.
Rising costs of gas and other expenses mean that self-sufficiency is essential, not a trendy luxury. "Hawaii in general needs to be more self-sustaining in food supply," he said.
"It might not happen in our lifetime, but it might happen in our children's lifetime."