Preparation time
30 mins to 1 hour
Cooking time
30 mins to 1 hour
Serves
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 150g/5½oz spelt
- vegetable oil, for frying and deep-frying
- 2 x 200g/7oz tuna steaks
- 3 tbsp black and green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
- 75ml/2½fl oz milk
- 75g/2½oz flour
- 2 banana shallots, thinly sliced into rings
- 3 whole dried chillies
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 400ml/14fl oz vegetable stock
- handful tenderstem broccoli, trimmed
- 2 free-range egg whites
- 1 tbsp black olive paste
- 2 sage leaves
- 2 anchovy fillets, cut into strips
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the spelt according to packet instructions. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.
Heat a little oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry the tuna until browned on all sides. Rest, then cut into 2cm/1in pieces and set aside.
Mix the cooked spelt with the olives and parsley in a bowl and set aside.
Fill a deep-fat fryer or a large, deep, heavy-bottomed pan two-thirds full with the oil. Heat to 180C (a cube of bread should turn brown in one minute when dropped in.) CAUTION: Hot oil can be dangerous. Do not leave unattended.
Pour the milk into a bowl, and place the flour in another bowl. Dip the shallot rings into the milk, then the flour and deep-fry until golden-brown. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside. Leave the fryer on.
Heat some olive oil in a small saucepan and fry the dried chillies and garlic until golden-brown and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper, tear the chillies into small pieces and set aside.
Bring the vegetable stock to the boil and cook the broccoli for 2 minutes. Strain the stock into a saucepan and keep warm to use later and keep the broccoli warm.
Whisk the egg whites together in a clean bowl until soft peaks form. Spread a little olive paste on each sage leaf and place an anchovy strip on top. Fold each sage leaf in half and dip into the egg whites, then deep-fry until just golden. Drain on kitchen paper.
To serve, split the spelt and olive mixture between two bowls and ladle over the warm stock. Add the tuna chunks and broccoli and scatter over the shallot rings, garlic and chilli. Top each bowl with a stuffed sage leaf.