Chilean Sea Bass w/ Peas & Shiitake Veloute

I hope everyone that celebrated had a very Merry Christmas yesterday!

I know the Garbes definitely did!

Santa was very good to us!  Andy outdid himself this year and upgraded my little beginner Nikon D40 to a Nikon D3200!  It's absolutely awesome!  And better yet, it came with a wireless adapter to stream my photos from my camera directly to my iPhone!  How neat is that?!  So of course I had to start shooting with it right away.  And one of the first things I did was test out it's ability on food - DUH!  And doesn't it just capture this sea bass beautifully?!  Either that, or I'm getting better at my photography skills.  Maybe it's both =)

Anyway, the day was spent with both of our families, driving, and eating!  It was definitely all worth it!

This was our Christmas Eve dinner (the time when Andy and I usually open our presents to eachother) and we both cleaned our plates dry!  It was SO good!

Ingredients:

2 6 oz. Chilean Sea Bass fillets
salt and pepper, to taste
flour, for dredging

Shiitake Veloute:

1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly
1 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 & 1/2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup seafood/fish stock
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup milk

1 & 1/2 cups frozen peas
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Heat a large saute pan under medium high heat.  Add olive oil and saute mushrooms until they start to soften, about 6-7 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Heat a medium saucepan under medium heat and melt butter.  Whisk in flour to create a roux.  We're basically just making a fish/seafood gravy.  Cook roux for about 1-2 minutes, or until slightly a pale yellow color.  Slowly incorporate the stock, whisking constantly to avoid lumps.  Then whisk in wine, followed by the milk.  Bring mixture to a boil and cook until slightly thickened, to sauce consistently.  You can thin it out with extra stock, if you need to.  Stir in the shiitake mushrooms and season to taste.  Keep warm until ready to use.

Season the sea bass with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour, shaking off any excess.  Heat some vegetable oil and/or butter in an oven-proof saute pan under medium high heat.  Place the sea bass, skin-side down, in the pan and cook until skin is crisp, about 3-4 minutes.  Flip over and carefully transfer pan to the oven to finish cooking the fish, about 5-6 minutes. 

While the bass is in the oven, you can quickly cook your peas.  Bring the water to a slow boil in a small saucepan.  Add peas and cook until warmed - they're frozen peas, so they're already cooked.  Drain and set aside.

When everything is ready, you can assemble your plate.  Place about 1/4 cup of the shiitake veloute in the center of each plate.  Top with a mound of peas.  Top the peas with the sea bass.  Garnish with whatever you like - I used some chives.

And voila - another simple and easy fish dish!  And it's gorgeous, to boot!

Hope you guys have a great rest of the week - and enjoy the snow (I know a lot of us experienced our first batches over the past couple of days!).

Allemande Sauce

 

Happy Friday everybody!

This quarter at school finally came to a close yesterday after I took my last final!  Hooray two weeks of freedom!  I've already started my "school-vacation" by redoing the bathroom - mainly just buying a new shower curtain, MAJOR dusting, some new rugs, and a few other odds and ends.  I'll have to post before and after pictures because it's definitely going to be "brighter"!

Anyway, I've got a sauce for ya today.  It's one that you don't see very often, and I have no idea why!  It's one of my favorites and it can go on practically any protein, although it's mostly used on meat and chicken.

This is actually a two for one post today - an Allemande is a small sauce to a mother sauce - Veloute.  So we've got to learn how to make a Veloute before we can make an Allemande.  But most of you probably already know how to make a Veloute.  Oh you don't think so?  Well... have you ever made a basic gravy?  Why yes?!  Well, my friends.  You've made a veloute - basically just a fancy way of saying gravy.  Who knew?! 

Well, let's get to it!

Ingredients:

Veloute:

1 oz. butter
1 oz. flour
2 & 1/2 cups chicken, beef, or fish stock
salt and pepper (white, if you have it), to taste


Allemande:

2 cups veloute sauce
1 eggs yolks
3 oz. heavy cream
1/8 oz. lemon juice
salt and pepper (white), to taste

Let's start by making our veloute.  In a large saucepan, heat up the butter under medium high heat.  Add the flour and stir.  This is a roux!  We'll want to cook it just until it's blonde in color.

Gradually add in your stock of choice (I used beef since this is going with a steak dish).  You'll want to be whisking constantly in order to prevent any lumps from forming.  Once the stock is incorporated, bring the mixture to a boil. 

 

Then reduce to a simmer and let reduce for about 30 minutes (about 2 cups).

Strain the mixture to remove any leftover lumps.  Voila, veloute.  This you can jar up and keep for a few days, no problem.  But we're taking it a couple steps further.

So for our allemande, place the veloute in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer.  I have an abundance of rosemary at the moment, so I threw in a sprig of that to add a little more dimension to the sauce. 

Meanwhile, in a stainless steel bowl, whip the egg yolks with the heavy cream.  This will create what's called a "liaison."  Ladle about 1/3 of the veloute in with the yolks, whisking constantly.  This, of course, is the process of "tempering." 

Gradually add the tempered liaison to the saucepan with the rest of the veloute, whisking constantly.

Do not let the mixture come to a boil, this will curdle the eggs - and you don't want that.

Add the lemon juice and season mixture with salt and pepper, to taste.

Strain mixture for any leftover lumps and serve right away.

We ended up topping a nice grilled NY Strip with the sauce, but the possibilities are endless!  You can even mold the Allemande with different flavor possibilities too - fresh herbs, tomato paste, horseradish, mushrooms - whatever pairs well with the meal you're serving! 

Enjoy guys - and have a great weekend!  And stay tuned to see what awesome dish that this sauce lands on =)