Newsletter # 65 – Ayer’s House, Adelaide – Snapper fillet Grenobloise

The City of Adelaide, along with the City of Hobart, are both regarded as cities that have managed to retain much of the heritage architecture of early British settlement of the 19^th century. The origins of both cities however are vastly different, for Hobart was a penal settlement and Adelaide was settled by free settlers.

The idea of British settlement of the Southern side of the continent was influenced, to a degree by the ongoing interest by successive French Navigators – firstly by Laperouse and secondly Nicholas Baudin. The concern of those early British Colonists, while not unfounded for both countries were not on friendly terms at the time, did highlight the fact that controlling an entire continent would require further British settlements. The French however were more interested in scientific study and both the Baudin and Laperouse names’ feature prominently as geographical place names, both in Australia and overseas. As an aside, when I worked with the French company Accor, the name of the restaurant was ‘Baudin’s’.

Adelaide was initially founded on almost Utopian principles, promising civil liberties and freedom from religious persecution for all. It was thought only having free settlers and no convicts would mean that Adelaide would be free of crime, so much so that the Adelaide of 1837, planned by Colonel William Light did not even have a gaol.

Colonel William Light had been commissioned as the Surveyor-General of South Australia, the previous year in London and after discounting several sites including the mouth of the Murray River and also present-day Glenelg, Light settled on an area of land, further inland, straddling the River Torrens, to site this new settlement which was to be called Adelaide. What came to be referred to as ‘Light’s Vision’ was a city surrounded by extensive parklands in roughly a figure eight shape. An extensive survey around the central grid pattern of both Adelaide and North Adelaide avoided the problems of unplanned development. Today Adelaide is regarded as one of the world’s most liveable cities.

Recently, Chris led a group of 23 other ladies from our community on a four-night stay in Adelaide and the images that Chris sent back reminded me of our stay in Adelaide nearly 50 years ago. While Adelaide has changed a great deal since 1977, the grand mansion that is Ayer’s House is still there.

While there are many notable buildings along North Terrace, Ayers House is an example of a private residence that did not succumb to demolition, for in 1970 the South Australian Premier, Don Dunstan, stepped in when he realised the tourism potential of this magnificent building.

Dating back to 1846, Ayers House’s most famous resident was Sir Henry Ayers who was the South Australian Premier for a record five terms and he lived at the house from 1855 until his death in 1897. You’ll no doubt associate the Ayer’s surname with that big rock in the Northern Territory now known as Uluru. During his tenure many cabinet meetings, parliamentary dinners and grand balls were held there.

In 1977 Chris and I worked at Ayers House for about two months during our trip around Australia. It was amazing how many doors opened when I mentioned that I had worked at the Sydney Hilton’s best restaurant. At the time Ayers House had two restaurants – the fine dining ‘Henry Ayers’ and ‘Paxton’s’ which was more bistro style, and they were the most popular restaurants in Adelaide. A regular diner was Don Dunstan who was still the Premier of South Australia and would be until 1979.

Not to be confused with the word ‘garnish’, the garniture – Grenobloise was a feature on the Henry Ayer’s menu for both luncheon and dinner. As the name suggests, the Grenobloise originated in the City of Grenoble and quickly became a popular way of serving seafood.

For this recipe I used gluten free bread for the croutons and gluten free flour to dust the fish but that is not compulsory. While not traditional, I used Cafe de Paris butter when I prepared my fish, but I will give you instructions for the authentic way. If you have made Cafe de Paris Butter, you will naturally have to moderate the amount of seasoning.

Snapper Fillet Grenobloise

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Servings: 4 servings

Course: Main Course

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 3 slices plain white bread cut into cubes
• 1000 ml vegetable oil for frying the croutons
• 50 g plain flour
• salt and pepper
• 600 g skinless snapper fillets 150g each portion
• 50 ml olive oil
• 150 g butter
• lemon segments from one lemon in a large dice
• 20 ml lemon juice
• 40 g baby capers
• 20 g parsley washed and finely chopped

Method

 

1. Assemble your ingredients
   
2. In a suitable sized saucepan heat the and test the temperature with a single piece of bread
   
3. If hot enough carefully add all your cubed bread and gently stir with a metal spoon until an even golden brown
   
4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and drain the croutons and place on kitchen paper and put on the side
   
5. In a suitable sized frypan heat the olive oil
6. Season the fish fillets with a little salt and pepper
   
7. Lightly dust with plain flour
   
8. Gently place the snapper fillets in the frypan, preferably presentation side down first
   
9. Turn the fillets after about 2 minutes
   
10. Place the filets on a serving dish
    
11. Add the plain butter (or Cafe de Paris butter) to the pan and melt quickly
    
12. Add the lemon pieces, lemon juice and capers
    
13. Stir in the croutons
    
14. Stir in half the parsley
15. Pour over the fish fillets
16. Sprinkle with the rest of the parsley
    
17. Serve with green salad and French fries

Notes

Cool the deep fry oil after use before straining the oil back into its bottle for future use.

If you are preparing just one portion for yourself, you can finish your sauce in the pan without removing the snapper fillet.