Cookbook review by Tracey Zabar
This beautiful book is filled with recipes to expand your cooking repertoire. There are technique instructions for sauces, soups, stocks and cakes, illustrated with step-by-step photographs. Next on my list: lime and honey duck fillets on a bed of zucchini; a Provençal vegetable tian; lemon meringue tartlets; and tutti-frutti waffles, dripping with fruit. And of course, the classic French onion soup.
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Recipe excerpted with permission from Flammarion/Rizzoli Publishing
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ANISEED-FLAMBEED SEA BREAM
SERVES 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS
2 gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) weighing about 1 ½ lb. (700 g) each
6 sprigs dill
4 star anise
A little olive oil
Scant ½ cup pastis (the French aniseed-flavored aperitif, similar to raki and ouzo)
Fine salt, freshly ground pepper
CHEF’S NOTE
Rice flavored with turmeric or sautéed potatoes make good sides for this fish dish.
Prepare the sea bream: remove the fins and scales, and gut them. Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Grease a baking tray.
Chop the dill and crush the star anise. Combine with salt and pepper. Fill the sea bream with this mixture. Arrange the sea bream on the baking tray. Use a brush to coat them with oil and season them with salt and pepper. Cook for 20–25 minutes.
Just before serving, flambé them with a generous dose of pastis.
Cut the sea bream, making sure you remove all the bones. Serve nice and hot with a beurre blanc sauce or a hollandaise sauce.
BEURRE BLANC
An unstable emulsified sauce used cold.
INGREDIENTS
(serve 4)
1 average-sized shallot (about 1 oz. [30 g])
1 ½ tablespoons (25 ml) dry white wine
2 teaspoons (10 ml) white wine vinegar and/or lemon juice
1 stick (125 g) good quality unsalted butter, very cold and cubed
Salt, white pepper or Cayenne pepper
Peel, wash, and finely dice the shallots.
Combine the white wine, vinegar, and shallots in a saucepan (1). Place on low to medium heat and reduce.
Do not allow the mixture to go completely dry. There should be 2–3 tablespoons of liquid left in the saucepan, and the shallots will be nice and moist. The alcohol will have evaporated and much of the acidity is removed.
Add the cubes of butter (2). Whisk in briskly to form the emulsion (3). Too high a temperature will cause the sauce to separate so it is best to leave it over a hot water bath at 122°F (50°C). Season.
If you wish, strain the sauce through a chinois or fine-mesh sieve.
CHEF’S NOTES
To obtain a nice, airy texture that will coat your dish attractively without masking it, use an electric blender.
When re-heating the sauce, do not bring it to a boil.
It is best to prepare the sauce at the last minute.
The quality of the butter is all-important, for it determines the taste of your sauce. For a balance of the salt seasoning, you may use half unsalted butter and half salted butter.
As with all butter sauces, allow around 1 oz. (25–30 g) butter per person when calculating the quantities for your guests.
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE
A stable emulsified sauce used hot.
INGREDIENTS
(serve 4)
3 egg yolks
3 teaspoons water
1 stick (120 g) good quality unsalted butter, clarified
4 teaspoons (20 ml) lemon juice
Salt
Cayenne pepper or piment d’Espelette
Whisk the egg yolks with the water (1). Place over a bain-marie or over very low heat and continue whisking until the mixture is nice and thick. Remove from the heat and whip in the melted butter (2).
Season and add the lemon juice.
CHEF’S NOTES
If your egg yolks become grainy because the mixture is overcooked, add a little water and whip. However, if you have really overcooked the sauce, star t again from the beginning.
If the sauce separates into watery liquid and fatty matter, add a small amount of cold water or an ice cube and work into an emulsion again.
Hollandaise sauce, just like béarnaise sauce, cools down rapidly. It is therefore important to make these sauces at the last moment or to keep them warm over a hot water bath.
DID YOU KNOW ?
The recipe is a tribute to the quality of the dairy products of the Netherlands.
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