Jack Stein's 'World on a Plate' recipes: From Cornish chilli crab to pinapple tarte tatin

I developed this dish after Ross, the farmer who supplies our restaurants, said he’d planted a lot of rainbow chard. The cod is sweet and flaky, the chard is earthy and the sweetcorn dressing has lots of savoury notes to complement the sweetness of the fish. Charring the sweetcorn gives extra depth of flavour, so either use a blowtorch or just chuck it under the grill. This dish looks as pretty as a picture.

Serves 4

4 cod fillets with skin on (180g each)
2 tsp sea salt, plus more as needed
30ml vegetable oil
Knob of butter
200g chard, cut diagonally
Drizzle of olive oil

For the corn vinaigrette

2 ears of sweetcorn 
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 banana shallot, minced
1 tsp English mustard
Sprig of thyme  
​50ml cider vinegar
200ml extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of garam masala
1 tsp dark soy sauce 

Season the cod fillets with sea salt. Heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan to a medium heat and cook the fillets skin side down for 2-3 minutes until the tops of the fillets begin to change to white in colour (this method allows the skin to brown slowly). Add a knob of butter to the pan, flip the fish, turn off the heat and leave the fillets to finish cooking in the residual heat. Check the temperature with a probe; it should read 50C. Once the fillets have reached this temperature, remove them from the pan and leave to rest. Do not clean the pan; set it aside to use later.

Meanwhile, make the corn vinaigrette. Husk the sweetcorn and cut the kernels from the cobs. Place the kernels in a bowl, along with the sunflower oil and 1 teaspoon of salt, and toss to coat. Transfer to a baking tray, place under a hot grill, on the middle shelf, and grill for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally, until the kernels start to blacken. (Or use a blowtorch for this.)

Place the minced shallot in a bowl. Add the mustard, thyme, cider vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, garam masala and soy sauce, and stir together. Then add the charred sweetcorn to the mixture and stir. Set the vinaigrette aside.

Put the pan used to cook the fish back on the heat. Deglaze the pan with 2 tablespoons of water, then add the corn vinaigrette to warm it up. It should take 1 minute.

Place the chard leaves in a saucepan along with water to a depth of 5cm. Cover the pan with a lid and steam the chard over a high heat for 1 minute. Once wilted, add salt and olive oil to taste. Remove from the heat.

Divide the chard among 4 plates, dress it with the vinaigrette and place the cod fillets on top.

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Singapore, in many ways, is where it all really began for me. Our family had travelled in Europe and eaten oysters and other fruits de mer in Brittany and beyond but in 1985, on a trip to Australia when I was five, my love of seafood really took off. On a stopover in Singapore we went, as usual, to a night market and that’s where I first saw and tasted chilli crab. Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe the unbelievable humidity, but something in the experience opened my senses. I knew crabs, but not like these. Those watching me in the market might have been confused to see a small, pale, ginger-haired kid looking perplexed by his sensory overload, but in fact I was being seduced by the wonderful flavours that the crab dish had to offer. Ever since I have found the combination of eating Asian food at 11pm while jetlagged to be paradise – and I owe it all to this dish!

My father’s version of chilli crab uses brown crab, which is far fuller-flavoured than the mud crabs used in Singapore. My own recipe is similar to his but with a few tweaks – a classic but with just a little twist.

Serves 4

2kg boiled brown crab 
4 tbsp groundnut or sunflower oil 
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped 
2.5cm fresh root ginger, finely chopped 
3 medium-hot, red, Dutch chillies, finely chopped 
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp dark soy sauce 
1 tsp Marmite 
2 spring onions, cut into 5cm pieces and finely shredded lengthways 
Handful of chopped coriander

Put the crab on its back on the chopping board, so that the claws and softer body section face upwards, then simply twist off the main claws, leaving the legs attached to the body. Now put your thumbs against the hard shell, close to the crab’s tail, and push and prise the body section out and away from the shell. The legs should still be attached to the body. Remove the small stomach sac situated just behind the crab’s mouth and pull away the feather-like gills (“dead man’s fingers”) which are attached along the edges of the centre part; discard these.

Using a teaspoon, scoop out the brown meat from inside the shell; reserve. Chop the body into quarters and then cut the main claws in half at the joint. Crack the shells of each piece with a hammer or the blunt edge of a large knife. Heat the oil, garlic, ginger and chilli in a wok for 1 minute to release their aromas.

Next, turn up the heat and fry off the brown crab meat, then add the ketchup, soy sauce, Marmite and 150ml of water. These all add savoury and sweet notes to the finished dish. Now add the remaining crab in its shell and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and finish with spring onions and chopped coriander.

Serve immediately – with lots of finger bowls and napkins, as this is a messy dish.

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A tarte tatin is always a wonderful thing. It is one of those desserts that just works in any situation. Flexible and adaptable, tarte tatin can be made with many different fruits. I love cooked pineapple and I think it works beautifully here.

Serves 6

250g puff pastry
75g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
1 medium-sized pineapple

To serve

Vanilla ice cream, coconut sorbet or crème fraîche

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut out a 26cm disc, slightly larger than the top of a 20cm tarte tatin dish or reliably non-stick cast iron frying pan. Transfer to a baking sheet and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, spread the butter over the base of the tarte tatin dish or frying pan and sprinkle over the sugar in a thick, even layer. Cut the top and bottom off the pineapple, trim the skin off the side and slice into rounds, each about 5cm thick.

Tightly pack the pineapple slices into the tarte tatin dish or frying pan and place over a medium heat. Cook for 20-25 minutes, gently shaking the pan now and then, until the butter and sugar have mixed with the pineapple juices to produce a rich sauce and the pineapple is just tender. At first the caramel will be pale and there might be some liquid from the juices of the pineapple, but as you keep on cooking, the juices will evaporate and the butter and sugar will become darker and thicker. Just take care that the butter and sugar do not burn. When the pineapple has been caramelised, remove the pan from the heat.

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Preheat the oven to 170C Fan (190C/gas mark 5). Gently place the pastry on top of the pineapple slices and tuck the edges down inside the pan. Prick the pastry 5 or 6 times with the tip of a small, sharp knife, transfer to the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the pastry is puffed up, crisp and golden.

Remove the tart from the oven and leave it to rest for 5 minutes. Run a knife round the edge of the tart and invert it onto a round, flat serving plate. Serve warm, cut into wedges, with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.

‘Jack Stein’s World on a Plate’ by Jack Stein (Absolute Press, £26) is out now; Read our interview with Jack here