Photos and food by Mark Tagal
This one tastes complicated, but it is pretty simple. Think of this dish as a play on fish and chips with a Filipino twist. It helps to make the sauce first and then set it aside until you plate the finished fish.
For the Mahi Mahi preparation, you will need the following:
- Mahi Mahi. Any white fish will work, but this works best with tropical white-fleshed fish like mahi-mahi or snapper.
- Lumpia wrappers
- Your favorite Furikake
- Salt & Pepper
For the Beurre Blanc sauce, you will need:
- Thai Basil
- Limes
- Shallots
- Garlic
- White wine
- Heavy cream
- Butter
- Soy Sauce
- Olive oil
- Reminder to set aside until the plate is ready for it
Supplies to look like you slaved over this dish:
- Corn starch
- Water
Before we prepare the Beurre Blanc sauce, here are a few facts:
- Beurre Blanc comes from the French and translates as white butter.
- This delicious sauce originated in the 1890s in the western French city of Nantes and was originally called Beurre Nantes.
Here are the steps to make the Beurre Blanc sauce:
- Put some olive oil in a pan and get it good and hot. Add chopped garlic and shallots. Then, let it sweat for a few minutes.
- Deglaze the pan with white wine and lime juice. Watch out because if you cook with gas or the pan is hot, this will probably flame up. That is OK. Flames look cool and they impress onlookers.
- Add the heavy cream and chopped-up basil as soon as the flames calm down. Keep it moving. You only need the heat on until it reduces by about ⅓. Don’t let it break (separate).
- Take the pan off the heat and add cold chopped-up butter. Don’t stop stirring. The goal is to get the butter to incorporate with the cream. Add a splash of soy sauce while you are stirring it all in.
- Set the sauce aside. Do not refrigerate or else the butter will get hard again. Don’t keep it on the heat because the sauce will break.
Now that the sauce is done, get ready to cook the fish. This is as easy as it gets.
- Lay out a lumpia wrapper and put the fish in the middle.
- Season with salt, pepper, and furikake.
- Wrap it all up.
- If the fish is wet, you can double wrap it.
- If you want a thick, crispy crust, go ahead with three wrappers.
- Fry it up.
- Lay it on a plate and cover it with that buerr blanc sauce as soon as it’s golden brown.
- Throw on some more fresh basil and lime slices for some garnish.
- Your diners will ooh and aah over it.
- Lastly, just for fun, throw a handful of cornstarch in your hair and splash your face with water so it looks like you did a lot of work.
