Salted cod, orange, fennel, and 'mandarin buttery sauce' | Paolo Barrale

Ingredients for 4 people

• 4 slices of salted cod fillet, 120 g each
• 2 fennel bulbs with fronds
• 1 bunch of chives
• 100 g black olives
• 2 oranges
• 50 g cooked potato
• 1 lemon
• Olive oil
• Mandarin "butter sauce" (70 cl mandarin olive oil, 30 g cocoa butter)

Method

Melt the cocoa butter in a double boiler and pour it over the mandarin oil (you can also use a citrus-based dressing), mix and let it cool in the fridge.

Grate the orange zest, prepare orange juice and add the zest to it, then bring to a boil and strain the mixture.

Add 20 g of crumbled cooked potato for every 100 g of juice and blend with an immersion blender, then adjust the salt.

Pit the olives and rinse them well to remove excess salt.

Bake them in the oven to dehydrate or in a microwave at medium intensity for about 30 minutes.

Crumble some stale bread and add it to the olives, sauté them lightly in a pan to toast them. Chop everything finely to make a dressing.

Clean and cut the fennel core into wedges, then thinly julienne the remaining fennel and store it in water and lemon juice.

Braise the wedges with a dash of oil and a little water, then adjust the salt.

Place the cod in a steamer basket and steam it for about 9 minutes.

Plating

Place the cod on top of the braised fennel, pour a couple of tablespoons of orange sauce on the bottom of the plate, add the crumbled olives and the lightly dressed fennel julienne. Finally, place a small quenelle of mandarin butter sauce and chives on the plate.