Ventura County's Savory Signature
Small town roots lead to big flavors
Kai Krupa’s (they/them) passion for cooking can be traced back to growing up in a Michigan small town surrounded by home cooks who shared a love of good food....
Ingredients
SERVINGS: 4 Serving(s)
- 1½ pounds local black cod (6-ounce pieces), or black sea bass Olive oil
Lime and Chili Slaw
- Juice of 2 limes, preferably Bearss
- 8 mint leaves, chopped
- 2 dried Arbol chilies, minced
- 4 green onions, cut crosswise into thin rounds
- 2 makrut lime leaves, chiffonade (or 1 tablespoon lime zest)
- 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
- 2 dashes fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ head cabbage, shredded (about 6 cups)
Blood Orange Salsa
- 3 dried guajillo chilies (seeds and stems removed)
- 1 dried chili morita
- 1 cup boiling water
- Juice of 2 blood oranges
- 2 tablespoons blood orange zest
- 1 small sweet onion, or ¼ yellow onion
- 1 teaspoon salt
Creamy Avocado
- 1 large Zutano avocado (can substitute other in-season varieties)
- Pinch of salt, to taste
Garnish
- Crispy tortilla strips, chili salt and edible flowers (optional)
Preparation
In a small bowl, mix ingredients for Chili Lime Slaw, excluding cabbage, and set aside to marinate. Before plating, mix cabbage with dressing.
Put chilies for Blood Orange Salsa in a blender and pour boiling water over. Wait approximately 10 minutes, until chilies have softened. Add remaining ingredients and blend on high, until smooth.
Mash or blend avocado with salt, until smooth and creamy.
Heat a cast-iron pan on medium-high heat with olive oil until just starting to smoke. Dry skin of fish with a paper towel and salt flesh side of fillets. Pan-fry fish, skin side down, until it starts to give away from pan and look crispy around edges, approximately 5 minutes. With a spatula, flip fish over and continue to cook for a couple more minutes, until starting to flake. Do not crowd pan. Cook fish in batches if necessary and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.
If using black sea bass, crisp 1 side and put pan in 400° oven for approximately 7 minutes. When fish is beginning to flake, pull it from oven and flip fish over. Pan’s residual heat will continue to cook fish.
To serve, put approximately ⅓ cup salsa on each plate. (If you are left with extra salsa, serve it on side for people to add extra to their plates or serve with a side of tortilla chips.) Next, put 1½ cups of Chile Lime Slaw in center of plate. Put a large spoon of Creamy Avocado next to slaw. Rest fish on an angle on slaw and top it with crispy tortilla chips and edible flowers.
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