Tea Smoked Baby Abalone with Squid Ink Vermicelli, Tomato Confit and Sautéed Garlic and Shallots

Methods and Directions

• Remove Abalone from shell and trim off waste. Pat dry and lightly loosen Abalone with the back of your knife to soften the muscle.
• Skin, quarter and remove seeds from two ripe tomatoes, these should be smoked with the Abalone and removed. Season to form a rough puree.
• Split the tea bags and mix with the assorted seeds to form a smoking mix.
• To make the vermicelli use a basic pasta recipe of 1 egg per 100g of plain flour using slightly more flour to compensate for approximately 30g-50g of squid ink plus a few drops of olive oil. Mix to form a stiff dough and rest for an hour.
• Work the dough through a pasta machine until smooth and approximately 2mm thick, cut through vermicelli setting and hang on floured wooden spoon until ready for cooking. Bring water to boil with salt and oil and cook pasta for 2 minutes, drain and refresh with cold water. Strain and dry well.
• Add a pinch of oil and form into small portions and cover.
• To smoke the abalone and tomato place foil onto a flat grill.
• Add the smoking mix and place the abalone and tomato on a wire rack over the flat grill and fully cover with a metal bowl or gastronome. You only need to slightly infuse the tea smoke into the abalone which takes only a few minutes, or until smoking mix is golden but not black.