Halibut on a bed of ginger stir-fried vegetables with plum sauce
Ingredients
4 x 4oz halibut fillet
Fine julienne of carrot onion celery leek mange-tout red pepper
Bean sprouts and ginger lightly tossed in Sharwoods stir-fry oil
A little beurre blanc with snipped chives
For the plum sauce (This recipe will make enough for 50 portions but it is not practical to make in smalleramounts and it keeps for weeks)
1lb Victoria type plums
Juice of one lemon
2oz brown sugar
5oz red wine vinegar
¼ pint port
1 shallot finelychopped
Juice of 1 orange
1oz redcurrant jelly
Pinch of five-spice
Method
In a muslin bag put two star anise six coriander seeds half a cinnamon stick and three cloves. Boil together the sugar and vinegar.
Add the stoned plums and shallot; simmer for five minutes. Add the remainder of the ingredients and simmer for one hour. Remove muslin bag and liquidise. Sieve and store.
I add this plum sauce to a basic veal jus in the proportion of about two tablespoons (plum) to about a half-pint (veal).
To assemble the dish place the pan-seared halibut on the stir-fried vegetables in the centre of a plate. Place a cordon of beurre blanc with chives around the edge and fill in the gap with the plum jus using a sauce boat.