Sauteed spinach & Shrimps with Poached Egg - Olive and Shellfish Foamy Broth

Hello ,

We continue our trip while cracking the codes of French Cuisine ;this time we will have a closer look at some  new indispensable techniques gathered in a very yummy and light dish...

We are about to realize the 3 following techniques:

Cooking 5  : saute cooking    *

Here is a basic cooking process but we just need to follow few rules.

Cooking 9: Poached eggs*

For breakfast or anytime , they won't have any more secrets for you.

Hot & cold sauces - mix 11: Cooking a fish stock *

As an introduction to most complicated sauces , stocks are the cradle of many delicious sauces...

Ok, let's start by the fish stock, for this recipe , we'll need :

•  Diced onion                                                                25  GR    - 1oz 
•  Diced carrot                                                                25  GR   -  1 oz
• White wine                                                                   3 CL -    1 Fl oz
• Shrimps shells & heads ( or fish bones)                     200 gr   -   0,5 lb
• Butter                                                                          10 GR    -  0,5 oz
• Sliced green part of leek                                             10 GR   -   0,5 oz
• Tap water                                                                    30 CL     -  10 Fl oz
• Bay leaves                                                                                   1

TECHNIQUE

First of all , you need to peel the shrimps( 2 lbs - 1 kg for this recipe) and keep the heads and shells; soak them for few minutes in cold water for rinsing (if you make a fish stock , proceed same way with fish bones and heads).

Meanwhile, wash , peel and cut you veggies.

Heat medium pan on slow stove and melt butter until foamy then add the strained shrimp peels ( or fish bones) and sweat them for a minute .

Add onions, carrots and leeks, sweat for another minute, then pour white wine on , water and bay leaf.

Watch out ! No Salt - No pepper, it would spoil the stock.

Bring to boil full blast for 20 minutes and strain immediately . Then keep for other uses. 

If  the fish stock is cooked longer , the Keratin of the bones and peels gives a "greyish"  turbid stock , with a bad Bitter taste!

                                                    Second Technique  : Cooking 9: Poached eggs

For this part we'll need 8 eggs, water and white vinegar...    
  The freshest , the best.  
 If you want  nice shaped poached eggs , you really need the freshest eggs you can find. The yolk will stay in the middle and allows you to keep it creamy.
After ten days of fridge, the egg white consistency changes and the yolk will start to get offset during cooking....

Starting now , you 're able the measure egg freshness at first glance ...
Raw or cooked : yolk in the middle =fresh  - The more it goes toward the outside, the .....older!

For best results , bring your water to boil and add some white vinegar ....don't be shy! The vinegar taste won't go inside the egg! As you can see on the picture, break the egg in a small recipient and

gently pour the egg in the simmering water, one by one so they don't get into contact . 

 Do not drop the egg in a splashy way , it wouldn't set correctly. Leave your egg  for a minute - minute and a half and gently turn it over with a large spoon or small skimmer to give the roundest possible shape..

When the egg is cooked ( white set but creamy yolk to taste), remove from pot with skimmer and drop in fresh water to cool down and rinse.

You can now trim the egg white with scissors to get something very nice !Keep on the side for later........

                                                         Third Technique  --Cooking 5  : saute cooking

This cooking technique is maybe the most common to all kinds of cuisine; it is either  very simple and easy to  screw up!

Generally speaking, the best results are just a matter of heat control; we need enough heat to sear the food but overheating may lead to dry or burnt food...

In our recipe, we need a really hot oil to saute 2 lbs - 1kg of spinach leaves for less than a minute . The leaves contains so much water !
You can sear the shrimps  the same way because small pieces are cooked in less then a minute. Just apply a light seasoning , and  your are ready!

Proceed same way with   oz - 200 gr  of mushrooms.

For thicker /bigger pieces , we'll have to reduce heat and a slower cooking process will avoid dryness and darker color...

In case  you wish to use butter, the best way is to heat a small amount of oil and when the desired temperature is reached, add a piece of butter and  cook immediately ! This trick will allow butter to reach a higher T°C without burning.

And .... finish up your yummy dish; it's time to eat now!

• Bring your shrimp/fish stock to boil and let reduce 2/3 until you have a light "syrup like" consistency.
• Warm up saute spinach, shrimps and mushrooms..
• Add   4 fl oz - 12 cl of olive oil in the reduced stock , check seasoning and blend until you have a yummy foamy emulsion
• you can now  proceed to plate elaboration....
• Place a bed of spinach in bottom of plate, top with a poached egg
• Dispose shrimps tails and mushrooms
• you can now gently pour your foamy sauce and ... enjoy!This dish is a real treat! 

CHILLED ORANGE ,CARROT & GINGER SOUP WITH PARMESAN CRACKER

CHILLED ORANGE  ,CARROT  & GINGER SOUP WITH PARMESAN CRACKER

Hello there, 

With the warmer spring  days , we will continue our chef's techniques  exploration with a chilled soup.

Actually very light and healthy, this soup  is a mix of awesome great matching flavors.....

In the recipe progression we'll meet two basic  techniques in thickening a soup with veggies and the well known "heavy cream thickening we already met once in the hot pumpkin creamy soup. 

The overall techniques used in this recipe:

Hot & cold sauces -mix 3: Mashed  Vegetable  Thickening

Hot & cold sauces -mix 18: Heavy cream thickening

Cooking 11 : Blanching

Ingredients for serving 8 

• Carrots                                                         1KG - 2,2  lbs
• Oranges                                                       250 GR - 1/2 lb
• Poultry or veggie Broth                              10 CL - 3,5 FLOZ
• Olive oil                                                      1 CL - A DASH
• Heavy cream                                               10 CL - 3,5 FLOZ
• Ginger Root                                                10 GR - 0,3 OZ
• Rosemary  Strand                                       1
• Ground cumin                                            A PINCH
• Cilantro leaves                                           1 Tablespoon

Orange skins blanching:

First of all , you'll have to peel the orange with a Vegetable peeler and slice them in stripes as  thin  as you can( have a look at the "How to safely  use a chef knife").The problems with citrus skin are bitterness and ......chemicals!! Unless you use organic oranges.

Blanching..... is the technique we need at this moment to get rid of strong tastes and unwanted stuffs( blood , chemicals, ....).

Just put your Orange skin Shred in a pan and fill up with cold water in big quantity. Bring to boil and at the first boils strain the orange skins and repeat the operation three times.

Finally , you have soft , clean and good tasting orange skin. Keep on the side

COOKING THE  CARROT SOUP

• Peel & cut the carrots in chunks
• Peel & chop ginger
• Juice the oranges
• remove rosemary leaves and keep on the side
• Prepare cilantro leaves and store in a cool place

Now , you are ready to cook the soup:

• Bring the poultry (or veggie broth) to boil ,  add carrot chunks and leave boiling for about half an hour.
• Pour the orange juice, add cumin , ginger, rosemary and half of the blanched skins. Leave boiling an extra 10 minutes.
• Blend the soup with the olive oil in order to get an emulsion.
• Bring back on the stove to fine tune the thickness by leaving soup to reduce at the desired thickness. Do not use starch , it  would give a jello like consistency .....
• Then cool the soup down as much possible (or better  ; place in blast chiller)
• Check seasoning.

THE PARMESAN CRACKERS

This  kind of salty crackers are a  must  with many starters such as veggie tartar or avocado mousse (coming soon on the blog). The only ingredient needed is ...... Flaked parmesan ( not ground)!

• Preheat your oven at very high t°C
• Take an oven tray covered with wax paper or a Silpat Mat(can be bought by cooking gear suppliers) slightly oiled.
• Pour parmesan flakes on the paper  in shape and size of the  desired cracker .You need to have an 1/8 inch thick raw cracker.
• Place in oven till light brown and let cool few seconds. With a metal spatula , place the crackers on a cool tray and leave until it sets hard
• Your cracker is ready to use ......

JUST NEED TO FINALIZE......

The last step consists in adding a bit of cream in the chilled soup, add the second half of orange skin shred( keep a bit for décoration if you want), place some cilantro or ( and) rosemary leaves to top up your plate. 

Nicely dispose the cracker on top of your presentation bowl or plate ........... And enjoy this wonderful dish.

Fruit Fritters in a Spice & Citrus Caramel

Fruit Fritters in a Spice & Citrus  Caramel 

Hi guys ,

For this  great  recipe , we keep on exploring the Famous chef's  Techniques and this time  you'll be shown how to elaborate yummy fresh fruit Fritters and a citrus caramel sauce .
It really tastes great but definitely not for an every day food or if you are on a diet because we are dealing about  calorie plus plus plus recipe but ..... once more so good and easy!

The recipe is very versatile recipe because you can use almost all the available fruits  you can have.


Your two new cooking weapons  will be :

Dough 14 : Frying dough  **
Pastry basics 11: Caramel sauce *

Dough 14 : Frying dough  **

Actually , nothing so hard in this basic dough if you followed our previous posts . To simplify as much as possible , frying dough is a thick pancake dough mixed with whipped egg whites (have a look at the warm Rum & Vanilla soufflé recipe to clearly master egg white whipping ).

INGREDIENTS for 8 pax

• Flour                     150 GR  -  5 OZ
• egg yolk                 1 piece
• egg white                3 pieces
• salt                          1 pinch
• ale beer                    15 CL   -   0,3 PINT
• Vanilla extract or orange flower water   1 dash

Technique:

1. Sieve flour and form a well in a large mixing bowl 
2. Add egg yolk , salt and Vanilla ( or orange water)
3. start stirring  and slowwwwly add the beer  ( to avoid ugly lumps)
4. Stir until you have a smooth dough 
5. Keep the dough in a cool place and we 'll just need to whip the egg whites at  the last moment to finish our dough.. Not to hard .....

Second step: Preparing and marinating the fruits

   The fruits are the main ingredients of this recipe  ; you 'll need about  1kg - 2 lbs  of mixed fruits.

I suggest you to avoid berries  ; due to their high  degree of water  composition, they do not lead to a great result and watery  items in a fryer may cause you  small burns  due to oil  splashes......

As an easy sample to test ; those ones are great:

• bananas
• golden apples
• pineapples
• pears

So  now ,  wash and peel your fruits  . 

Cut them  at a bite in the shape you wish to have  in your plate  (Too big pieces of apples especially would lead t o uncooked fritters in the middle).

Marinate the fruits separately  with lemon juice  and according to your mood:   chopped mint, cinnamon, cardamomn, nutmeg, vanilla seeds, rum..............

Leave your fruits in the fridge for at least an hour to get maximum flavor...

Your ready for the Caramel Sauce now.

Spice  & Citrus  Caramel sauce

This sauce is one of my favorite to match with all kinds of sweets , i love it so much...This will be the occasion to use all the forgotten spices  from your cupboard! You know what i mean?

Ingredients:

• Caster Sugar   500 gr
• Orange/ grapefruit/ Tangerine juice    25 cl
• lemon juice      5 cl 
• spices (as a sample): cumin seed, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, black or white pepper , ginger stem, cardamomn seed, nutmeg shred..........

Recipe :

1. Pour the sugar in a very clean pan ( copper  pot is the best), add a dash of water and bring to boil
2. When the syrup starts to boil , skim the corners of the pot with a wet cooking brush and leave on the stove until you get a light brown caramel.
3. At this stage , the sugar is damn hot and you have to be very careful...
4. Turn stove off and leave caramel on the side , it will darken a bit more  itself...
5. Drop the pot's bottom in cool water to stop the coloring process  at desired shade of dark blond ... Avoid dark colors which give bitter taste to your caramel.
6. Add 3/4 of citrus juice and bring to boil again.
7. When the sauce start to boil , add spices and leave simmering for 5 minutes
8. Let cool the sauce .
9. when the citrus caramel is cool , you will discover its real consistancy...If too thick add the rest of citrus juice and leave the caramel for few hours to get the maximum flavors out of the spices( Prepare the sauce the day before for best taste).

Last steps..............Hurry up , we're hungry!

We are almost done , we need to finalize the frying dough ...

As shown in the Rum and Vanilla Soufflé , you 'll need to whip the egg whites and add them carefully to your dough . You have to get a smooth dough before frying . 

• Heat your fryer up to 160°C  -   320°F  and then dip your marinated fruit pieces( with ice cube tongs is the most convenient) in the dough  and slowly lay in the fryer.
•  Leave  in oil until light brown and crispy.....
• When ready , leave the fritter on  tissue paper to avoir oil excess ( if your fritters look too oily, that means oil t°C is too low )
• Sprinkle your fritters with icing sugar and ...... Eat them all , dipped in your marvelous Citrus & Spices Caramel Sauce....

I swear , it really tastes great!

WARM RUM & VANILLA SOUFFLE

Hi guys,

Keeping on  our cooking world exploration , we are going to lean over a classical but delicious Sweet soufflé.

Soufflé are said to be very difficult to realize but with few tips you'll be shown,  you 'll find  the technique at your reach.

It 's important to notice that we have two big families in soufflés.

The vanilla, coffee, chocolate , almond , hazelnut  or pistachio "type" are made with a flavored Pastry ( or pâtissière) cream combined with whipped egg whites .

The second Type  are basically fruits soufflés ; made of mixed fruit purée combined with french or Italian meringue.

Today we 'll explore the Pastry cream base family soufflés.
As your are used to now , you will learn two new cooking techniques:


Cream & mix 6: Pastry "patissiere "cream **

Cream & mix 8: Sweet hot soufflé ***

Pastry basics 1 : whipping and mixing egg white **

The Pâtissière Cream  (Cream & mix 6: Pastry "patissiere "cream **)

Ingredients (serving 8 pax):

Semi skimmed milk                       50 CL     -    1PINT

Egg yolk                                        10 to 12

Caster sugar                                   220 GR     -  7,5 OZ 

Extra Vanilla pod                          1

Flour                                              100 GR  -     3,5  OZ

TECHNIQUE

1. Pour milk in a medium size pan  with the vanilla pod split in half . With the tip of office knife, scrape all the vanilla seeds and mix well to the milk.
2. Bring to boil .
3. In a pastry bowl , whisk well egg yolk  and sugar until you get a fluffy consistency then add sieved flour  and mix well.
4. When the milk is boiling, pour slowly on the egg yolk , flour and sugar mix while whisking.
5. Pour the mix back in the pan and keep on whisking on medium fire until it boils again. Then your Pâtissière will have the  right thickness. Leave the vanilla skins in the cream the get more  flavor later on.Add a dash of rum if you wish ; it latches very well with vanilla.
6. In the case you may want to realize a pistachio or  chocolate  soufflé; you can add the flavoring elements a this stage. 
7. Keep the Pâtissière  to cool down with a plastic/ paper wrap on top to avoid crusting. Some elder cooks use a bit of melted butter on the surface  for the same purpose. You are now ready with the cream.

IMPORTANT:  Make sure your Pâtissière as boiled on the stove! Otherwise it might lead to bad consistency  and  belly pains  due to uncooked  flour.

In the meantime your cream is cooling , you can skirt the soufflé moulds with melted butter and sprinkle in inside with caster sugar . This operation will avoid the soufflé to stick to your mould. A skirting spray will  be fine either.

The Whipped egg whites :Pastry basics 1 : whipping and mixing egg white **

( The Funny part ......)

Ingredients (serving 8 pax):

Egg White                                     16 units or  

Table salt                                      1 pinch                             

Caster sugar                                  20 GR     -   0,5 OZ

This technique is said to be very difficult  to realize but in fact it's not true if you pay attention to the following tips:

• use egg whites at room temperature( never use cold egg whites)
• use a pinch of salt  to help the whisking process ( it does really help)
• Whisk slowly at the beginning  and full speed and very end only ( especially with hand whisk!)
• Never stop the whisking process otherwise the eggs will be  kind of gritty and impossible to use.
• add a bit of caster sugar at the very end and whisk full speed for few seconds in order to give a tough consistency to the preparation. 
• Once  you are done . .... Don't whisk anymore!

Now , you almost ready with your soufflé ; your oven is turn on at 365°CF- 180°C.

Useful tip: bring  one inch - 2 cm of water to boil  in a large pan to help the rising of the soufflé. I'll show your haw in a second....

Moulding  and baking the soufflés

1. At this point, take your pastry cream  and remove the vanilla skins; whisk it few seconds to have a smooth and fluffy cream. 
2. Put your whisk away now to avoid mistakes!
3. Add the egg whites and mix well but very carefully( to avoid egg white collapsing)  with a spatula until you have a homogeneous soufflé mix.
4. Fill the mould  at 90% . The little available space will help the soufflé to rise properly.
5. Dip  the soufflés  bottom moulds in the  shallow boiling  water until they start rising; let's say 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Then carefully remove the soufflés from  water and bake them right away  . Do not open the oven's door ( for about 10 minutes for indiv. serving or 25 minutes for  for the bigger ones) until the soufflé it totally risen . 
7. Your soufflé is ready.... Sprinkle some ice sugar on top  and enjoy your Rum & Vanilla Soufflé !!!
8. Serve as quick as possible before , the soufflé collapses . That's it , you can make it with your own flavors and the technique will always be the same . I will show you in the next weeks how to realize the Fruit Family Soufflés......

Parmesan and Broccoli Parisian Gnocchi

Hi there,

This week, we keep on  reviewing the main cooking techniques by exploring 4 new topics:

• Dough 8: choux dough ***

• Cooking 6: Boiling Green Veggies  *

• Cooking 38: Boiling  choux dough gnocchi  *

• Hot & cold sauces - mix 5: Béchamel sauce & similars*

First thing we need to realize is the choux dough which is a very common  dough throughout cooking worl. Some people say it's very difficult but if you follow the preparation step by step , it's going to be  a real piece of cake.

In fact this dough has three key moments during elaboration. Once you know how to proceed , the choux dough won't  have any more secrets....And you'll never fail!
We can prepare dozens of different sweets and dishes but the recipe will always remain the same!

CHOUX DOUGH -INGREDIENTS FOR 8 PAX

• 4 whole eggs
• 100GR- 3,5 OZ  Butter ( cut in pieces)
• 25 CL -  8,5 FL OZ  Water
• 150 GR -  5,5 OZ Flour (sieved)
• 2 GR -  1 pinch Table Salt

Technique:

1. Bring to boil the water with the salt and   butter  cut in small pieces in saucepan.
2. At boiling point, put the pan away from the fire ( very important) and pour the sieved flour in one time.
3. Stir the dough with spatula or wooden spoon till you have a smooth but sticky consistence.
4. Put   the pan back on the fire (set a low as possible), then heat up the dough for a while in order to dry it up. It's important  to keep in mind that the result you want is to get a non-sticking dough , no matter how long it might take...So , keep on slowly stirring the dough until  it sticks neither to the spatula nor to the pan , you are done for this part. 
5. Pour the dough in a preparation bowl and leave it cooling down for  few minutes. We still have to add the eggs, that 's why it has to cool( to prevent scrambling).
6. To end up our choux dough , break one egg , pour in the dough and stir with spatula until the dough becomes smooth again. Repeat this step for each egg; if you try to add several eggs at a time , the dough would split and will have to start all the way from the beginning......

At this point , your dough is complete and can be used in many different ways. Keep this recipe as  a reference and you'll succeed for sure.

BOILING THE CHOUX DOUGH  PARISIAN GNOCCHI

So, your choux dough  nice and ready  . You just need to cook your Parisian gnocchis. 

• Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
• Fill a pumping bag with a round muzzle  with dough.
• Pump the bag over the water and cut small pieces in a "corklike" shape with the tip of a small knife.

• Leave the gnocchis to boil until they float back to the surface .
• Remove from the pan with a skimmer and dip in cold water .

• Keep on the side for further use.

                           BECHAMEL (WHITE )SAUCE   -  INGREDIENTS FOR 8 PAX

This sauce may be the most famous basic techniques ; everybody knows this but  we often hear about lumps in the sauce. I'll just tell you soon how to avoid this .....

• 50 CL - 17 FL OZ  Semi - skimmed milk
• 30 GR - 1 OZ Flour 
• 30 GR- 1 OZ Butter
• 1 pinch Ground Nutmeg
• salt & white ground pepper

Technique:   

1. Melt butter in pan with no color 
2. Add flour and slowly stir with spatula or whisk to get a blond paste- leave en the side to cool down.This preparation is called a "roux" and always made with equal quantities of butter and flour.
3. Bring milk , salt , grated nutmeg &pepper to boil.
4. Slowly pour hot milk on the cold roux while whisking the preparation .
5. Once  the milk poured, put your smooth béchamel on the stove and bring to boil (always keep on whisking).
6. Leave to boil few seconds and remove from fire . You're ready.

Important tip:

The only way to avoid lumps in a Béchamel is to have hot milk poured on cold "roux " or  cold milk on hot "roux". The first solution tastes much better on my opinion.

You have cooked a plain Béchamel sauce.It's barely never used alone.

 In many recipes , this basic sauce is used with some grated cheese and egg added to give an interesting taste and better color when baked in the oven.

Today , we will add when the sauce has cooled down  for few minutes:

                                    80GR - 3 OZ  grated Swiss Cheese 

                                    20 GR - 0,7 OZ grated Parmesan Cheese

                                    1 whole egg

Your sauce is just great now!

                                                        Boiling Green Vegetables

This sounds very simple but 9 persons out of 10 do not really know how to do it properly. The main idea is to keep the veggies as green as possible  for visual pleasure , avoiding vitamins and nutriments loss and having the right consistence.....

• Bring a large quantity of salted water to boil as strong as possible.
• Drop your green veggies  ( broccoli in that particular case) in the water and let them boil at maximum T°C.
• when cooked , removes the green vegetables with skimmer and put in a large quantity of ice cold water . This step will make the green color become more intense and stop the cooking process.
• Strain and keep on the side .

You would just need to reheat the vegetables in a boiling salted water for few seconds in the case your veggies  would be used as a side dish.Never keep green vegetables hot for a long period of time ; they will turn to an ugly military green color!

We are almost done ; the only thing to do is to  finalize the gratin.

• Spread a layer of Cheesed Béchamel in the bottom of the gratin dish(third of quantity)
• Add the  gnocchis and broccoli sprouts cut in medium pieces.
• Pour the remaining Béchamel sauce on top of the dish
• Sprinkle with extra grated parmesan and swiss cheese. 
• Bake  at 180°C -360 °F until  you have a nice light brown color.....

Enjoy your meal.....This dish is great for cold winter evenings.

Warm Pumpkin creamy Soup

Creamy Pumpkin Soup with heavy cream spider net pattern  decoration

Howdy,

In our way  to French Chefs Cooking Techniques and as winter is at the threshold , will explore another topic of cooking  which is how to prepare soups , creams and veloutés. Today we're gonna have a close look at the Creams .
The technique , once more, will always be the same whether you may want to achieve an asparagus , Celeriac or whatever creamy soup.

Sometimes , you'll see the name "velouté " for a creamy soup; this is exactly the same process of elaboration  except you thicken  with flour and  at the very end of cooking , just before serving , you shall make a egg yolk finish. It gives an more unctuous consistency but can not be reheated at all otherwise , it would split......Flour thickening can be useful if you have no starchy vegetables in the recipe.

As usual now, your are familiar with our techniques directory(just register for free to get it), today we'll get familiar with two new items:

1. Hot & cold sauces - mix 18: Heavy cream thickening*
2. Cooking 39: Creamy Soups & Veloute soups  *

INGREDIENTS - SERVING 8 PAX

• BUTTER                                                          40 GR     - 1,4 OZ
• LIQUID COOKING CREAM                         12 CL  -   4 FL OZ
• CARROT                                                          200 GR    -   7 OZ
• PUMPKIN PEELED                                        800 GR    -   1,7 LB
• LEEK(WHITE PART)                                     400 GR    -    14 OZ
• POTATOES                                                      300 GR -     10 OZ
• CLEAR POULTRY OR VEGGIE BROTH     1,5 L -  3 PINTS
• SALT

       As you can notice , we do not use any  pepper in a soup because it makes ugly  dark spots and pepper gets stronger and stronger when it cooks . This tip avoids having too spicy soups ; except if you love it!!!!

TECHNIQUE : cooking 39

•  Wash  ( be careful to the  grit !) and finely chop the white leek.
• Peel  and Cut  pumpkin , carrot  and potatoes in half inch cubes.
• In large pot melt butter and sweat the chopped  leek white with no color , just in order to get rid of the veggie strong water .
• When done, pour the poultry or veggie broth and bring to boil.
• At boiling point, add carrot, pumpkin and potato cubes and season with the salt.
• Leave slowly boiling with lid on.
• When cooked , blend the soup and strain it if you want to avoid lumps of veggies .
• Bring to boil again  and the last step  will be  the cream thickening.

TECHNIQUE : Hot & Cold sauces - mix 18: cream thickening

This technique is not used that often but it's the same tip as mustard thickening, blood or urchin cream thickening....You'll sometimes meet those weird techniques in classical  French recipes.

But let's be back to our cream for the last step.....

• When your pumpkin ( asparagus, lettuce...) soup is ready bring it back to boil for a minute .

• Pour the cream in a preparation bowl and whisk it slowly while adding a ladle or two of hot soup.This is very useful to heat the cream up and  will avoid a strong temperature chock and a high  splitting risk .You may have noticed  this sometimes when making hot creamy sauces.

• Then pour the lukewarm cream + soup mix  back in the pot while slowly  whisking and your creamy soup is ready  .

With those few tips , creamy soups have no more secrets for you now!!

N.B :  In case you need to cook a Lettuce or Calaloo  creamy soup , you may not use  potatoes  to thicken the soup. Flour will replace the starchy veggie. Then you will use the same amount of flour as  butter. Sweat your leeks in the butter and add flour , leave slowly simmer  for a minute and proceed exactly the same way for the rest of the recipe..... 

Grilled Salmon Fillet with its Lime and basil Emulsion

Hello ,

As we keep on reviewing our cooking basics, the next step after the grilling veggies as you were shown in my latest post , will be how to properly grill a fish fillet  and , further on, the easiest and reliable way to make  a light butter emulsion.

Grilling is a key technique and in this post , I will enlighten its most important steps .

Concerning the Lime an Butter Emulsion , we are talking of  a supposed " very difficult to realize" sauce which is very close to the traditional Beurre Blanc but in a very lighter modern version ...

So today two new techniques  will become a piece of cake for you:

• Cooking 23: Fish slice or fillet  grilling**

• Hot & cold sauces - mix 27: lime & butter emulsion***

So , let's start by the grilling section . This post will be your reference concerning fish grilling.
We commonly see big mistakes and the final result is so often spoilt....

When grilling  , we should in fact say marking rhombus ( or fishnet pattern) on the food . The other  goal of grilling is to get this so particular taste of charcoal or wood fire & metal seared food .

• At first step , we will cut the fish fillet in the shape and size we want , pin bone  and marinate. The simplest marinade ever is what we call the "quick marinade".Its purpose is to give a bit of extra flavor to the fish . 

   We need just a bit of oil, a dash of lemon juice , thyme & bay leaves and seasoning.
The fact of using oil will give you an extra chance to avoid fish from sticking to the grill.
Leave the fish few minutes prior cooking.

• The second step we have is to reach a  high  enough temperature on the grill  to avoid the flesh from sticking to the metal.I use a folded   large piece of aluminium foil. 

      Leave it on the grill for few minutes and the temperature  will drastically increase. Be careful nevertheless not to  overheat the metal till it becomes reddish,the fish would develop a bad "iron" taste...So when your grill is very hot (but not red), clean it with the iron brush and wipe it with a piece of cloth.

• The third step is the main part of the technique. We need to get the rhombus/fishnet pattern on the fish.Better than blablabla... Pictures of the goal we wanna reach is more convenient. 

              

                                             

Our goal is to get as closely as possible to this pattern looking . 

So , remove your piece of fish from the marinade , wipe the  excess of oil  and  lay the fish steak ( presentation side first) on the grill and let sear for half a minute without moving it anymore . 

After this time, use a spatula to lift the fish a little bit and turn on a 80 ° angle ( 90°C would be too much in a visual aspect). 

Leave the steak  exactly as you did right before . 

Then do the same thing with the other side.

Great ! Now you have a well marked grilling pattern ..... Notice that this process will be the same for every grilled food...

• Fourth step  is for sure where most people make mistakes.....because of the fire strength. We need a very strong heat to get the fishnet pattern  but in the meantime , this high temperature will be too strong to finalize the cooking. This is why some grills have two independent parts; one very strong for thin and fast cooking food and one ( sometime a shelf ) with a very much lower temperature  to leave the food in a low temperature process.

     For our fish , or for big pieces , will will have to terminate the cooking process with  the lowest      possible  T°c because those products are delicate. This will avoid the flesh to dry & to be stressed and tough .

  This point will show a good you are as grill cook !  If the result is good-tasting, nice  & moist , you passed . But if , the result black , iron tasty  and dry; you ..............

  The easiest way is to end  the cooking of the food in a  medium low oven  150°C / 300°F.

So , now you are almost ready with your dish. The next thong you need is to realize ;

 Lime and Butter Emulsion

This sauce is based on a French Classical recipe know as 'Beurre Blanc or Whipped Butter" but this one is a lighter modern version used by the actual chefs. I will show you the Classical( very much heavier) one in an other post .

My version will be very great with grilled and boiled veggies, grilled, boiled or roasted fishes .

INGREDIENTS - SERVING  8PAX

•  Fish broth (or veggie broth)   10 CL - 3 FL OZ
•  1  Lemon juice   
•  Cod Butter cut in little dices  125GR -  5 OZ
•  Basil or any aromatic  leaves of you choice (minced) 
•  Pinch of salt & pepper

This kind of sauces have the reputation of being very difficult to successfully realize but I show you the step by step way to break  the myth. 

The  main keys you have to keep in mind for success

• cold butter  cut in small pieces
• boiling broth  ( you need  a very hot base)
• acid broth ( acidity helps emulsion )
• intense whisking  to avoid splitting

This sauce has to be served in the next 30minutes and it can't be reheated without splitting. So , it's a last minute task!

TECHNIQUE

1. Pour broth in a saucepan with lemon juice  and bring to boil . 
2. Let reduce from half at least  
3. Whip   the liquid quit quickly  while adding small pieces of cold butter.Do not stop whisking during this phase.You can use a mixer to have an even better emulsion.
4. When all the butter is  in emulsion  , remove from fire .
5. Add minced basil or other herb you wish, check seasoning and serve in the next 30 minutes.