Pike-perch by Ron Blaauw

Ingredients

General

•   200 gr barley
•   4 dl vegetable or chicken broth
•   2 bay leaves
•   100 gr smoked bacon cubes
•   100 gr sultana (white) raisins
•   4 dl farmers buttermilk
•   3 tbsp finely chopped fresh herbs (dill, tarragon, and mint)
•   Fresh ground salt and pepper

Butter sauce

• 250 gr butter
• 25 ml Noilly Prat (Vermouth)
• 25 ml white wine (dry)
• 40 gr shallots, in rings
• 8 peppercorns (crushed)
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 egg yolks
• 40 ml water
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 3 drops of Tabasco
• Salt

Extra’s

•   Juice of ½ lemon
•   3 drops of Tabasco
•   Salt

Pike-perch

•   4x 150 gr pike-perch fillet with skin
•   4 tbsp soybean oil
•   50 gr butter

Supplies

•   Mixing bowls
•   WWOO Cutting board

How to prepare

•   Preheat the WWOO Braaimaster, indirectly, to 180 °C. (You can also use a pan or oven.)
•   Wash and soak the raisins in lukewarm water.
•   Wash the barley well under cold water and rinse it clean.
•   Boil the barley and the broth with the bay leaves.
•   Cook the barley with the lid on. It takes about an hour to cook the barley over medium heat on the WWOO Braaimaster.
•   Add the buttermilk and raisins after approximately 30 minutes.
•   Fry the bacon cubes in an oven dish on the Big Green Egg. Keep this separate for now.
•   Cut the mint into very fine strips and keep them separate for now.
•   Melt the butter on an open fire on the WWOO Braaimaster. Wait until it has a light brown color. Pour the butter through a fine sieve and let it cool down to about 50 °C.
•   Cook the white wine, vermouth, pepper, bay leaf, shallots, and water until only half of the original around is left.
• Strain what is left above a mixing bowl and let it cool down a bit.
•   Fill a pan with some water and put it on the fire. Whisk what’s left of the white wine “au bain-marie” and add the egg yolks. Cook over medium heat.
•   Remove the pan from the fire.
•   Whisk the lukewarm butter through the egg yolks.
•   Season with lemon juice, salt, Tabasco, and pepper.

Pike-perch

•   Check each piece of pike perch fillet carefully for fish bones. Use a very sharp knife to make some incisions in the skin.
•   Rub the butter and oil on the pike perch fillet, and season with salt and pepper. Add 2 tbsp white wine (or broth) to the fish.
•   Wrap the fish in foil and cook it on the Big Green Egg, for about 10 minutes over an open fire. Set the pike-perch fillet aside for 4 minutes before you serve it.

How to serve

•   Mix the fried bacon (including the fat) and the mint through the barley.
•   Serve this on warm plates. Take the fish out of the foil, scoop it onto the barley, together with a big spoonful of sauce.