Preserved lemon baked Coorong Mullet, burnt butter emulsion, market bok choy
SA award-winning chef Kane Pollard creates a mouth-watering seafood recipe for SALIFE.
Serves 4
for burnt butter emulsion
50ml soy milk
200g butter
5ml lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch salt
Preserved lemon butter
10g chopped, preserved lemon
40g sliced spring onion
150g room temperature butter
to finish/plate
4 large, butterflied SA Coorong Mullet
20ml olive oil
12 baby bok choy, washed
12 sprigs of karkalla
To make the burnt butter emulsion, place the butter in a pot on a medium heat. Once melted, move the pot around in a circular motion to keep the butter gently swirling around. The butter will foam, then die down as the milk solids caramelise/burn. Remove from the heat and set aside in the pot.
Warm the soy milk up to a simmer in a pot, then place in a mixing bowl. Whisk in the lemon juice and Dijon mustard until incorporated. Slowly whisk in the burnt butter, whisking the whole time, allowing the burnt butter to emulsify into the soy milk mix. Season and set aside covered to keep warm.
For the preserved lemon butter, place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and fold together to combine. Spread onto a baking paper lined tray to about 1cm thick and allow to set for 15 minutes in the fridge.
To bring the dish together, pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees, then place the butterflied fish open (flesh side up) on a lined baking tray. Season the flesh. Take your preserved lemon butter out of the fridge, cut it into 4 pieces. Place a piece of the butter on each of the fish and fold the fish over so that the butter is sandwiched between the 2 fillets.
Place the bok choy on the same tray as the fish and brush the fish skin and bok choy with olive oil. Season with salt. Put the tray in the oven for 7 minutes until the butter has melted and the flesh is just cooked through.
To plate, spoon on the burnt butter emulsion onto the bottom left corner of the plate, place the fish beside the emulsion, then finish with the bok choy and karkalla. Dress the fish with the juices from the tray.
Top tips
When it comes to grilling over charcoal or smoking, you want a little fat under the skin or an oily fleshed fish. You can’t beat South Australian Tommy Ruff or Coorong Mullet for this, with the smokiness complementing their natural flavour beautifully.
For the BBQ, I love something a little more lean, like SA Garfish and King George Whiting. The blistered skin and opaque flesh allows the clean flavour of the fish to come through, while the bbq’d skin boosts the umami levels up to a new level.
For steaming, a thicker fleshed fish is the best with Nannygai (Red Snapper) and Carp belly being absolute standouts.
We’re spoilt for choice here in SA – from farmed and wild catches to shellfish and molluscs. So, next time you’re at the counter, ask your fishmonger for locally caught, in-season seafood.
This recipe first appeared in the March 2026 issue of SALIFE magazine.
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