Kaffir in the Limelight

http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/10/23/kaffir-in-the-limelight/
By Jason Chow


Coral trout confit with kaffir gel饬 kaffir lime salad and shaved fennel salad at Mozaic Restaurant in Bali

The leaves of the kaffir lime are a staple of southeast Asian curries, but the fruit itself, bitter and relatively dry for citrus, is typically discarded.

Chris Salans, the chef at Mozaic in Bali, Indonesia, insists there is hope for the kaffir lime, and plays up its aromatic notes in a dish of fish confit, kaffir gelée and shaved fennel salad with kaffir dressing and caviar.

The 42-year-old discovered that the fruit, when left to ripen on his kitchen counter for two weeks, turns yellow and juicy, with a flavor reminiscent of the leaves. “With all the years I’ve been here, it was like a historic moment,” he says.

Born in Washington, D.C., and trained in Paris, Mr. Salans honed his skills at Lucas Carton in Paris, Bouley Bakery in New York and Bouchon in Yountville, Calif. He opened Mozaic in 2001, and in July started a more casual sister restaurant called Mozaic Beach Club, also in Bali.

Indonesian cuisine is often “a combination of 26 flavors,” he says, but he opts to isolate single ingredients in his food. Here’s the thinking behind his kaffir-intensive dish.

Philippe Heurtault

Chris Salans, chef of Mozaic Restaurant.

An oil bath for fatty fish: The fish is determined by what his importers can offer him. For this dish, Mr. Salans has used “fat” fish like Tasmanian salmon, coral trout and butterfish. He places the filets in a pan and covers them with basa gede—canola oil infused with ginger, galangal, chili, candlenut, lemongrass and pepper. He adds fresh kaffir lime leaves and then bakes the fish at a low temperature for 45 minutes. “The fish looks raw, but it just melts in your mouth,” he says.

Kaffir, nose to tail: “The idea,” he says, “is to give the same ingredient in three ways, three textures.” For the dressing, he combines honey and canola oil with the juice and zest of the limes. He makes the yellow gelée garnish from orange juice that has been infused with kaffir leaves and mixed with gelatin. His kaffir salt, which he uses to season the fish before serving, is a combination of the lime zest and sea salt.

Local salad: Mr. Salans uses locally grown fennel, mint and kaffir lime leaves for his salad. He tops it with almonds that have been toasted and tossed with sugar, salt, kaffir lime zest and Andaliman lemon pepper, a relative of the Sichuan peppercorn. “It has the citrusy flavor but doesn’t leave that numbness in your mouth,” he says.

Assembly: He spoons dressing at the base of the plate, adds the fish, then tops it with the salad. As a final garnish, he adds a few cubes of the gelée and a dollop of Russian sturgeon caviar. The sweet-sour dressing, gelée and salt cut the richness of the fish, while the caviar adds a luxurious mouth feel. “How do I match a Michelin experience here? I use local ingredients along with well-known exclusive ingredients,” he says. “Here, it’s kaffir and caviar.”

Price: The fish dish often appears on Mr. Salans’s eight-course “discovery” tasting menu, which costs 900,000 Indonesian rupiah ($94).

Mozaic, Jalan Raya Sanggingan, Ubud, Gianyar. Tel. +62 361 975768.