I felt like a butter sauce, and I felt like rice paddy herb.  Two different culinary traditions (Europe and South East Asia), but that’s what recipe testing is for – to test out recipes.  So, I did, and it was very good.

Jobfish is also called Ironjaw or Rusty Jobfish (Aphareus rutilans) and I bought it as a cutlet about 2cm thick.  Not a regular fish to find in the fishmongers as apparently it is generally a bycatch, not being deliberately sought because it doesn’t fetch such a high price.  But like many things I reckon it is a lesser known gem, and cooks up beautifully in the pan as a cutlet, matching well with the strong herbaceous flavours of the rice paddy herb and long leaf (sawtooth, Mexican or Thai) coriander.

Jobfish with rice paddy herb & butter sauce

Steve from Cairns Ocean Products, where I bought the fish, suggested that goldband snapper fillet with skin on, or Spanish mackerel cutlet would be a good substitute for the jobfish.

I have included the photo from the previous night, where I cooked the jobfish with 1 clove of garlic, fried to golden prior to adding fish to the pan, and brown rice with another 1/4 cup of finely chopped mixed rice paddy herb and long leaf coriander.  The herbed rice was a great mix, and the garlic was good but I prefer the version below with the slightly sweeter red shallots, and the inclusion of pineapple.

These proportions are for one serve, so expand accordingly for the number of people you are serving.  I use freshly cut pineapple pieces but you could replace with unsweetened canned pineapple pieces if you don’t have access to good quality fresh pineapples.  Here it is:

Jobfish with rice paddy herb & butter sauce

1 jobfish cutlet

40g butter

1 – 2 teaspoons peanut oil

1 red shallot bulb, peeled and finely sliced

2/3 cup pineapple pieces

1 teaspoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste if needed (equal to around 1-3 limes depending on juiciness)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup finely chopped rice paddy herb

1/4 cup finely chopped long leaf coriander

Serve with: wide rice noodles, or well cooked brown rice with some extra herbs mixed through

Method

Warm a cast iron or other heavy based frypan over a gentle to medium heat then add the butter and enough peanut oil to prevent the butter burning (between 1-2 teaspoons).

When the butter is melted add the shallots and fry gently until just softened, then push away to the edges of the pan, swirl the butter so that the middle of the pan is well covered, and add the fish cutlet.  Adjust the heat if needed so that the fish is cooking at a gentle sizzle, and add the pineapple pieces around the edge of the fish.

Cook the cutlet on one side for about 3-6 minutes or so, long enough to develop a golden brown glaze as in the image above.  Flip the cutlet over, and cook for a few minutes longer – the second side won’t need as long as the first.  Add the fish sauce, lime juice and pepper.  Just before you plate up, taste the sauce to check for flavour and if needed add a tiny bit more fish sauce or a squeeze of extra lime juice.  Scatter the herbs over the fish, and/or through the rice noodles if you are serving the fish on rice noodles.

The cutlet can be served next to rice noodles or rice, on on top.  As the cutlet is so easy to debone, when plating up served on the noodles, I just peeled the skin away, and pulled each quarter of the cutlet away from the central bone and outward bone-spikes, and served the boneless chunks mixed with the noodles in a noodle bowl.

Rice noodles absorb the sauce and balance the strong herb flavours, as does well cooked brown rice with some extra herbs tossed through.  It would also go well with a crispy salad such as a green papaya salad or a banana bud salad.  More on those two in the next few weeks.

(C) Clare Richards 2012