When I went to Ta Lin
on Saturday I bought a lovely fresh 2.5 lb. petrale sole. Since we went out to dinner on Saturday, on
Sunday evening Suzette looked at several recipes and we finally decided to bake
the fish in lemon juice, butter, herbs and a bit of white wine and then use the
stock for a cream sauce.
I started by boiling about 1 lb. of frozen green peas in an 4
quart pot of water that would later be used to boil the egg noodles.
When the peas were re-hydrated and cooked, I put the peas in
a bowl and covered them with saran.
Then we went to the garden to see what herbs we had available. We picked sprigs of parsley, tarragon and
garlic greens and then we picked about 1 cup of kale leaves, after which I cut
off the head of the fish so the fish would fit into a baking dish.
I chopped the herbs and Suzette mashed the herbs into 2 oz. of
butter and laid a layer of kale leaves on the bottom of the ceramic baking dish
and then the fish and then coated the fish with the compounded butter.
It took about 45 minutes to bake the fish at 350˚. While the fish was cooking we boiled the head
of the fish in about three cups of water, so it would produce broth and started
the egg noodles boiling.
When 30 minutes of cooking time had elapsed, Suzette chopped
about 1/3 cup of onion and I chopped about ¼ cup of garlic and garlic greens. After sautéing the onion and garlic greens in
butter and olive oil for a few minutes until they softened, Suzette added 2
Tbsp. flour and cooked that into a roux.
Then Suzette strained the fish stock and added the approximately 1 ½ cups
of fish stock and in a few more minutes, when the fish came out of the oven,
added some of its sauce to make the cream sauce. Then she added the peas and more kale to the
cream sauce and cooked the sauce and vegetables for a few minutes to heat
everything.
I fetched a bottle of 2011Reserve des Cleons Muscadet Sèvre
et Maine Sur Lie (Trader Joe’s) from the basement and poured it.
I then boned the fish and placed a layer of fish on top of
the egg noodles and then Suzette spooned the cream sauce with greens and peas
onto the fish and noodles. There is a
unique way of de-boning a flat fish.
First you take a fish knife or curved object and pull the rows of bones
at the fish’s extremities away from the body, then you can lift the filet usually
with a spatula under the large central bone and ribs to release the bottom side
of the fish from the skeleton. What you left
with is the bottom side exposed with the top side removed to the side and theoretically,
no bones.
The dish was delicious and the mild, dry wine did not
interfere with the delicate flavors of the fish and vegetables, but it did not
have any character.
The all-important bottom of the wine’s label stated, Mis en
Bouteille a Mouzillon par lacheteau 44194 Vallet – France, which means to me
that the grapes were grown at one or more locations and then sent to be processed
in Mouzillon for Lecheteau, which is a large bulk wine production exporter of wine. The back label confirmed this when it disclosed
that that the wine was shipped by Lacheteau, S.A. F44194. When the mail code of the location of the
production facility is the only address given and no code for the growing
facility given, it is a bad sign. I recall
that the harshly sweet Vouvray also was processed and shipped by lacheteau, so
this is a similar situation.
Bon Appétit
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