Neil Rankin's Detroit-style katsu pizza with Wild Alaska Pollock

This cuisine-bending dish, created as part of the Be Different campaign with Wild Alaska Seafood, combines Japanese and modern American influences

Published: Friday 22nd June 2018

Serves 4

Preparation time 60 mins

Cooking time 15 mins

There are chefs who feel so attached to a particular nation's cuisine that the idea of fusion seems totally alien. Neil Rankin is not one of those chefs. At his Temper restaurants – one in Soho, one in the City of London and the newest in Covent Garden – Rankin takes flavours, techniques and cooking styles from a multitude of different countries' food traditions and uses them as a vehicle to reinterpret classic dishes in his own way.

Take this recipe, for example. When we gave him a piece of Wild Alaska Pollock, he created a deep-dish, Detroit-style pizza with Italian cheeses, a Japanese curry sauce, along with a host of other flourishes. That might sound ambitious, but the result is simpler than it seems: it's a delicious, moreish dish that's greater than the sum of its parts.

Check out the recipe below.

Ingredients

  • 400g pizza dough
  • 250g fior di latte, grated
  • 50g Pecorino, grated
  • 50g fennel jam
  • 100g steamed Wild Alaska Pollock
  • 30g prawn panko
  • 10g picked dill
  • 40g prawn mayo

For the katsu curry

  • 200g sliced onion
  • 300g chicken stock
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • 2 tsp cornflour
  • 2 tsp garlic paste
  • 2 tsp ginger paste
  • 2 tsp dashi soup granules

For the fennel jam

  • 4 fennel bulb, sliced
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 clove
  • 1 tsp chilli seeds
  • 100g light brown sugar
  • 100ml cider vinegar

For the prawn panko

  • 200g prawn shells
  • 200ml prawn oil (see below)
  • 200g panko breadcrumbs 
  • Salt 

For the prawn mayonnaise

  • 200ml prawn oil
  • 2 free-range egg yolks
  • 1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • ½ lemon
  • Salt to taste

For the pizza dough

  • 650g Italian 00 flour
  • 7g sachet dry yeast
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 25ml olive oil
  • 50ml warm milk
  • 325ml warm water

Method

For the katsu curry

  1. Fry the onion till soft, and add the spices, ginger and garlic.
  2. Add the chicken stock and cook down by half.
  3. Season with dashi then thicken with slaked cornflour.

For the prawn oil

  1. Cook leftover prawn shells and heads in oil, just to cover, until it turns red and becomes aromatic.

For the prawn panko

  1. Use the oil to pan-fry the panko and add salt to taste.

For the prawn mayo

  1. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl with the vinegar and mustard, then add the prawn oil and whisk together gradually until thickened.
  2. Season with a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and a little more vinegar, if needed.

For the pizza dough

  1. At Temper we use a natural starter pizza dough, but this focaccia recipe works just as well. Mix using a slow dough hook mixer or by hand.
  2. Knead till bouncy then leave covered in the fridge for 24-48 hours.
  3. Take out and roll out to the size of your deep dish pan and let it rise in a warm place.

To make and serve

  1. Set your oven to 250°C. 
  2. Cover the top of the dough with cheese and then curry sauce. Bake for 8-10 Mins
  3. Steam the Wild Alaska Pollock for about 8 mins, until flakey.
  4. When the cheese is cooked take it out and add the flaked pollock, fennel jam and the panko. Re-warm if necessary; otherwise slice into squares, then top with the mayo and dill to finish.

This recipe was produced as part of our Be Different campaign, in association with Wild Alaska Seafood. For more recipe inspiration, go to foodism.co.uk/be-different

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