Ka Pao head chef shares recipes to celebrate Edinburgh Seafood Festival at St James Quarter this May

The Edinburgh Seafood Festival last year was a really special way to shine a light on some of the incredible produce we have here in Scotland, and the UK. Our menu and recipes at Ka Pao are broadly influenced by the cooking of Southeast Asia, but our aim throughout the seasons is to unite many of the cooking techniques and ingredients we’ve experienced travelling there with produce found closer to home. Scottish fish and shellfish have a huge place on our menu and often our specials too. We’ll be hitting up our supplier, John Vallance, closer to the time to find out what they have coming in and getting some inspiration for some fishy specials over the weekend.

Until then, here are a couple of recipes for folk to try at home to get in the seafood spirit. The dressings we’re looking at here are brilliant with a whole host of seafood so could be adapted for any occasion. This is just our particular take on recipes that vary from region to region, each with bold flavour and aromatics”. Sandy Browning, executive chef at Ka Pao, www.ka-pao.com

Fresh oysters, roasted green nam jim

For this recipe, we use two types of chilli; standard green chillies, and a bird’s eye chilli. This Southeast Asian dipping sauce is supposed to be pretty punchy but taste as you go and find how you like it best. We prefer it hot, but if you want something less fiery, simply remove the bird’s eye chilli from the recipe. If you are struggling to find this variety, finger chillies are a great alternative. Don’t be scared of shucking oysters at home. Practise makes perfect and this makes for a great interactive starter or snack that can be scaled up for a crowd. Plate up shucked, on chipped ice, dressed with the nam jim, or let your guests help themselves.

Serves 2

For the nam jim (enough for 6 oysters)

12g fresh green chillies (whole)

48ml lime juice

1g sea salt

2 cloves of garlic

36ml fish sauce

12g caster sugar

1 green bird’s eye chilli (optional)

1 In a dry wok or frying pan on a high heat, roast the whole green chillies until the skin blisters and the chillies soften.

2 Allow the chillies to cool slightly and remove the blistered skin.

3 Add the cooled chillies and the rest of the ingredients to a blender, and blend until ingredients are fully combined. Alternatively, use a pestle and mortar to pound the ingredients together slowly, starting with the garlic and slowly adding the rest, leaving the liquids until last.

4 Serve your shucked oysters over ice, with a teaspoon of nam jim.

Fillet of sea bream, cabbage salad, nam jim jaew

The dressing in this dish, nam jim jaew, is distinctly complex. Simultaneously sweet, tart, salty and funky. It’s a great accompaniment to any grilled fish, so would do well as we approach barbeque season with grilled sardines or salmon. Here we’re serving it with pan seared sea bream and spicy cabbage and peanut slaw. The addition of the blackened grapes add sweet and smoky juices to the slaw, in summer gooseberries are a great seasonal alternative.

Serves 4

4 sea bream fillets (scaled, skin on)

40g pickled ginger, finely sliced

280g white cabbage, finely shredded

80g roasted peanuts

100g grapes

10g green chilli, finely sliced

12g coriander leaves

2 tbsps cooking oil

For the jaew, mix together:

50g caster sugar

25g minced garlic

8g finely sliced lemongrass

75ml light soy sauce

35ml kecap manis (sweet soy)

½ tsp roasted chilli powder

1 Add the grapes to a wok or frying pan until the skins are blistered and beginning to blacken. Remove from the pan and allow to cool slightly.

2 In a large mixing bowl, mix the shredded cabbage, pickled ginger, peanuts, sliced chilli, coriander and grapes.

3 Add the jaew dressing, toss together and set aside.

4 In a non-stick frying pan bring 2 tbsps of neutral oil to a high heat. Pat any excess moisture from the fillets with a paper towel and rub each side with a little table salt.

5 Place the fillets skin side down into the hot oil, pressing gently down for 30 seconds, or until the flesh no longer wants to shrink away from the surface of the pan.

6 Fry for 3 minutes on the skin side (or until the flesh has turned opaque two-thirds of the way through the fillet). Cook for one minute on the flesh side.

7 Give the salad another quick mix incorporating all of the juices that have been released from the grapes, cabbage, ginger and chillies.

8 Serve the fillets on warm plates, topping with a heaped handful of salad and plenty of jaew.

For more information on the Edinburgh Seafood Festival, see www.stjamesquarter.com