Roasted Rock Flathead Tail With Burnt Green Garlic Salsa

INGREDIENTS

2 kg rock flathead – get your fish monger to scale and gut
4 garlic cloves, 4 sprigs thyme, lug of olive oil, salt and black pepper for roasting
4 stalks of green garlic
Pinch of chopped flat leaf parsley
a few chopped mint leaves
80 ml extra virgin olive oil
2 lemons juiced
splash of sherry vinegar
a hand full of winter purslane
sea salt and cracked black pepper

METHOD
1 Lay flat head on a clean chopping board and make an incision, cutting the fish in two. Use the bottom of where the fish was gutted as a guide which will result in a 1kg tail for roasting, free of pinebones. Reserve upper body filets for another use.
2 Preheat oven to 190°C
3 Place tail on a roasting tray and dress with oil, salt and pepper, place thyme and garlic under the fish and allow to come to room temp. Aprrox 20mins
4 Meanwhile, char grill the green garlic then place in a metal bowl covered in plastic to finish steaming.
5 Place fish in the oven and set a 10min timer.
6 Remove green garlic and on a clean board chop reasonably finely. Place in a mixing bowl and stir in oil, juice, vinegar, mint, parsley and seasoning. Taste the salsa as further adjusting may be required. The char grilling should create a nice charred/BBQ flavour with the fresh herb and acidity breaking through.
7 Test fish by gently squeezing the thickest part. It should JUST feel as if the internal fish flakes are moving on each other but leave a little underdone as it will continue cooking on the bone.
8 Place cooked fish on a large platter, dress with salsa, puslane greens, a lug of good olive oil, squeeze of lemon, few extra lemon wedges and extra sea salt and cracked black pepper. Enjoy!

The Carousel thanks Coogee Pavilion Restaurant and Merival for this recipe.