During our day at Broadway Market with top Mediterranean chefs, Barbara Masaad, Altin Demir and André Magalhães, we caught up with André to chat all things fish.
“Today I'm going to prepare Tuna carpaccio, I like to work a lot with raw fish, marinaded fish, cured fish and smoked fish – it's probably my favourite ingredient, I try to promote the lesser, cheaper fish that are not very marketable. One time at my restaurant it was tuna season, and we have the most amazing tuna from the Azure sea, we were impressed by this tuna dish I improvised -which is in the Raki and Fish book. So I'm going to reinterpret that tuna with a couple of new twists, from the produce I found at Broadway market today!"
As Tan Mogul describes in his Raki and Fish book:
“For dinner, we head to André's restaurant, Taberna. We'd talked so much about fish throughout the day that we had no qualms about trusting our chef – André – with our tastes… We begin with a carpaccio. Our main ingredient is a special cut from the stomach of a tuna caught in the Azores which André bought the day before and has let stand in the refrigerator. Because it is so tedious to clean this piece of the fish – a section dense with the tendons that give the tuna its speed – it is not held in such esteem today. But in antiquity, this cut was very much appreciated; Athenaeus stated that the belly cut was expensive, and was a portion of food that not even the gods would sneer at. As aware of its value as the cooks of antiquity, André, spoon in hand, first separated the dark fibres, then the tendons and bones. He worked quickly so as not to compromise the freshness of the fish.
Half of the plate was to be the Mediterranean, the other half Asian in style. The Mediterranean-style carpaccio would be accompanied by a mixture of grated lemon zest, vinegar, olive oil, salt and seaweed; for the Asian version he would use fermented cabbage of Korea (kimchi) and sesame seeds with wasabi and soy sauce. Our vote was for the Mediterranean style; not only was it closer to our tastes, but the other version seems to have a bit too contrast in flavours…"