Hoki with Pesto

“Hoki with Pesto” a delicious recipe packed with amazing fresh flavours and cooks in no time!

Hoki fish or Blue Hake from New Zealand was introduced to me by Hai Sia Seafood in Singapore. I had never tasted this fish before that but I have had Hake before and it is my favourite fish.

Last time when I developed a recipe for Hai Sia Seafood, it was this delicious Fish with Coconut Sauce recipe and it was a big hit in my house.

Hoki with pesto, a delightful combination!

This time I wanted to make the Hoki Fish slightly different so I tried cooking it a few different ways like sous vide, pickling, steaming, poaching and pan-frying it. I really liked sous vide, pickling and pan-frying this fish, in this recipe I have sous vide the fish and then pan-fried it.

If you follow me on social media you would know I am a big user of essential oils and essential oil crystals. For my cooking, I often use these oil crystals I bought from Boutique Bio. You can also use food-grade essential oils like doTERRA offers. In this recipe I have used some oil crystals, I reckon that really elevates the taste but if you don’t have them then you can use fresh herbs instead, however, I would highly recommend using these in your cooking.

So to make this Hoki with Pesto you will need Sous Vide Machine but if you don’t have one then just pan fry the fish for 3 minutes from each side.

This is how you make this Hoki with Pesto.

Ingredients for fish:

• Hoki fish cut in bite size pieces
• A few Vervain or verbena oil crystals or few drops of essential oil or ½ tsp verbena leaves finely chopped
• A few fennel oil crystals or drops of essential oil or finely chopped fresh fennel ½ tsp
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for pesto:

• 50g fresh basil roughly chopped
• 50g fresh oregano roughly chopped
• 20g fresh parsley  
• 30g finely chopped almonds
• 30g pine nuts
• 10g garlic
• 200ml olive oil
• 5g red chilli paste
• 40g grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp lemon juice and zest
• A few crystals of lemon oil or essential oils
• Black pepper to taste
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

Add all the ingredients for pesto except half of the olive oil in a blender or food processor. Start blitzing and add olive oil. Blend it well and keep it aside. 

Store it in a glass jar and keep it in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

Marinate the fish in all these ingredients at least for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Put it in a ziploc or vacuum pack it. Sous vide it for 35 minutes on 50C/122F.

After sous vide take it out of the water, heat a pan till very hot. Heat 1 tsp oil and pan fry it from one side for 1 minute or 30 seconds on both the sides.

To serve, serve the hot fish with pesto on the side. Enjoy!