Mai Pangka (Lake Food)

Coorong Mullet seasoned with coastal rosemary and sea parsley garnished with grey leaf saltbush crisps on a bed of old man and grey saltbush on a wholemeal wheat johnnycake
Picture
Recipe
Serves two people

Ingredients
• Coorong mullet 2 large fillets
• Sea parley 1 tsp
• Coastal rosemary 8 small sprigs
• Grey Saltbush leaves 1 cup
• Oldman Saltbush leaves 1 cup
• Coorong spinach 1/2 cup
• Desert lime Qty 2
• Duck Egg mayo 4 Tbs
• Murray river salt 1/2 tsp
• Ground mountain pepper 1/2 tsp 
• River mint 2 leaves
• Butter 1 Tbs
• Macadamia oil 1tbsp
• Mara Murdumurdu Flatbread Qty 4

Equipment
• Kampa kuru Saucepan
• Kuru Bowl
• Tadli tadli frying pan
• Pakipakiti Knife
• Tarralyi Chopping board
• Karnkarnkati Spoon
• Pardupamamati Folk or Strainer

Prepration
  1. Pre-make the Mara Murdumurdu Flatbread before making the filling. You can make the Mara Murdumurdu Flatbread 1 or 2 days before but it is always nicer fresh and warm.
  2. Pre-make some saltbush chips by frying a 1/4 cup of saltbush leaves in a hot frying pan with macadamia oil until the saltbush chips are crispy
​
Cooking
  1. Prepare the coastal vegetables by picking the soft leaves and remove the hard woody stems from the Grey Saltbush, Oldman Saltbush and coorong spinach
  2. Take the soft coastal vegetable leaves and blanch them in boiling hot water for 20 to 30 seconds. Remove the coastal vegetable leaves from the boiling water with a strainer or a fork and place in ice cold water for 1 to 2 minutes. Blanching the vegetables will make them turn bright green and it will remove a slight irritant from the coorong spinach. It is okay to under blanch the vegetables but don’t over blanch them because they become soft and soggy.
  3. Drain the coastal vegetable leaves to remove the water.
  4. Cut the two coorong fillets into 4 small pieces. Dice the fresh sea parsley finely and coat the fillets with the sea parsley, mountain pepper and murray river salt. Place 1 coastal rosemary sprig on each side of the fillets.
  5. Heat some butter in a frying pan until hot and place small fillets of coorong mullet in the pan with a sprig of coastal rosemary under the fillet. Cook the fish until it is golden brown on each side and the fillet cooked through. After the fillet are removed from the frying pan remove the sprigs of coastal rosemary. Tip, coastal rosemary has a bitter taste when you chew it but if you place a sprig of the coastal rosemary on the surface of the meat the flavour is transferred but not the bitterness.
  6. Finally to serve. take a warm Mara Murdumurdu Flatbread​​ and fill it with the blanched coastal vegetables and the fillet of coorong mullet. Top the fish with the mayonnaise and garnish with salt bush chips. Add some lime juice or some salt to taste. Enjoy!