VISITING NILS EGTERMEYER
7:00 in the morning at Hummer Pedersen's in Hamburg’s fish market. Hustle and bustle everywhere. Fish scales splatter onto the ground, crashed ice covers slippery, shiny sea creatures, and bubbling aquariums add to the base of the soundscape.
A young man with a strawberry blond mop digs around in various cool boxes full of freshly landed goods, looking for the best pieces. They know this guy in his jeans, bomber jacket and colourful hoodie well and allow him to do it. Two octopuses, each 1-1 ½ kilos, fall heavily from his hands onto the scale. The mop belongs to Nils Ektermeyer, 33, one of our German culinary talents who has devoted himself to the sea and all of its riches. He wants to apply his handiwork, which he refined in Mallorca, to the Hamburg restaurant “Jellyfish”. We are meeting him for a photo shoot for the food magazine “Zu Gast”. He quickly and expertly checks the gills of a stately halibut, orders a piece of swordfish and a sushi-quality tuna, and in an instant we are sitting in his Audi on the way to the restaurant.
For four years he has been head chef at the "Jellyfish". He’s still strongly bound to the restaurant; though new jobs challenge him elsewhere. At RTL2 he stands in front of the camera with the culinary pros, and in addition he cooks multiple times a month for and with up to 20 guests in the quasi-homely setting of a Hamburg penthouse, set up as a communal culinary experience.
Tappas is our theme today, and fish plays the main role. Influenced by his time in Mallorca, the most impressive part being the time as head chef at Marc Fosh's “Simply Fosh” in Palma, he serves us the first course, positioning shiso cress with tweezers, carefully placing avocado and mango pieces on top of the tuna. And he is ready to serve the next course before we’ve finished lighting the first one.
The backgrounds are switched, tables are moved, the window decorations become props, the lights are adjusted, and after 2 hours of intense, concentrated work we have a look at the photos on the computer.
The dishes are bouillabaisse, halibut, carabinero prawns or swordfish, peas, and char caviar. All of them beautifully styled, mediterranean, and light. The fish, slightly translucent inside, melts on the tongue, the seasoning underlining its flavour. In this unpretentious seafood kitchen, what more could a guest ask for!
Cod Brandade | Capsicum Cream | Capers
(for 4 people)
250 g codfish fillet
200 ml olive oil
2 garlic cloves
500 g fresh potatoes
3 red capsicums
1 chilli pepper
4 tbsp capers
1 tbsp good-quality mayonnaise
zest of ½ organic lemon
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
vegetable oil
Cook the cod fillet along with the garlic in the olive oil at low temperature (65°C) until the meat flakes easily with a fork. Rinse, peel and cook the potatoes. Set one potato aside, and mix the cod with the still warm potatoes and use a masher to pound into a rough puree. Add pepper, sea salt, vegetable oil and lemon zest to taste. Set this brandade aside.
Allow the capsicum and the chilli pepper to simmer in the oven, then place in a blender with the potato and mayonnaise. Blend to a smooth mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste and strain through a sieve. Fry capers in vegetable oil until golden-brown. Shape the brandade into mounds and pass a Bunsen burner over them. Serve with the capsicum cream, capers and basil.
Bouillabaisse | Halibut | Carabineros
(for 4 people)
200 g red capsicum cubes
100 g carrot cubes
100 g celiac cubes
100 g fennel cubes
100 g onion cubes
3 garlic cloves
1 whole dorado, circa 400 g, descaled
8 giant prawns with shells on (carabineros)
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp white wine
3 tbsp Vermouth
500 g canned tomatoes
2 tbsp fish sauce (Asian shop)
500 g fish stock
200 g chilled butter cubes
400 g halibut (or cod) fillet
sea salt
pepper
saffron
paprika
lemon
olive oil
Heat a dash of olive oil in a large pot, add cubed vegetables and garlic and fry until slightly browned. Cut the dorado into 6 pieces with a large knife and add to the vegetables. Peel the prawns and add the shells to the pot. When the vegetables are cooked and the dorado is slightly flaking apart, add the tomato paste and keep frying. Season with paprika, saffron, pepper and salt. Then, douse the fond with white wine and Vermouth. Allow to reduce to half.
Puree the canned tomatoes and pour into the pot. Add the fish sauce and fish stock and cook the aromatic stock for two hours at low heat.
Pour the stock through a fine sieve twice, pressing all of the juice out while doing so. The pulp is no longer needed. Reduce the bouillabaisse until it reaches a beautifully intense taste. Add the butter cubes to the stock and blend with a hand blender until the mixture is smooth and viscid.
Cut the halibut (or cod) fillet into cubes and cook in a to 160°C preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Fry the carabineros in a pan with olive oil.
Serve the carabineros with the bouillabaisse and some tournée-cut and sautéed vegetables.
Pulpo | Calamaretti | Sauce Nero
(for 4 people)
1 kg pulpo (octopus)
750 ml red wine
1 l salted water
150 g tomato sauce
2 tbsp squid ink
1 tsp Xanthan
4 calamaretti (small octopuses)
olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed cress
Wash and, most importantly, remove all hard bits from the pulpo. Cook at low heat in salt water and red wine for two hours until completely soft. Dye the tomato sauce with the ink and thicken with the Xanthan. Fill into a piping bag. Clean the calamaretti and cut into thin strips. Blanch for 5 seconds in salt water. Marinate the pulpo with olive oil and garlic. Arrange the pulpo with the ink sauce and the blanched calamaretti. Garnish with fresh cress.
Swordfish | Peas | Char Caviar
(for 4 people)
1 shallot
300 g strong chicken stock
1 pinch sugar
300 g frozen peas
4 swordfish steaks, each 120 g
4 tbsp char caviar
12 twigs of young coriander
3 tbsp good-quality olive oil
sea salt
pepper
Peel the shallot and chop finely. Bring chicken stock, shallot and sugar to a boil. Add peas then purée in a blender until very smooth. Strain the purée through a sieve, fill into a piping bag and chill.Season the swordfish steaks with salt and pepper. Grill at a high temperature but allow the inside to stay translucent. Serve with pea creme, char caviar and young coriander.
Tuna | Jalapeno | Mango
(for 4 people)
400 g sashimi-quality tuna
1 ripe avocado
1 ripe mango
1 cucumber, shaped into small rolls
1 red chilli pepper
1 green jalapeño
1 yellow chilli pepper
high-quality olive oil
freshly ground pepper
fleur de sel
shiso cress
Cut the tuna into even slices and season with olive oil, pepper and sea salt. Arrange in small bowls or plates. Cut the avocado and mango into cubes and arrange on top of the tuna. Add one cucumber roll to each portion. Garnish with finely sliced chilli peppers and jalapeño along with shiso cress.
Recipes: Nils Egtermeyer | Crockery: Rosenthal Mesh Aqua
In collaboration with the Austrian food magazine “Zu Gast”
