Ingredients :
• 1200 grams sea perch (2 ¾ lbs, can be Sea Bass or Rockfish)
• 250 grams fine fish stuffing (1 Cup)
• 20 grams chopped tarragon (1 ½ Tbsp)
• 500 grams Puff pastry dough (1 lbs)
• 1 egg yolk
• 200 grams savory crêpes (7 oz)
• Choron sauce (a béarnaise sauce without the tarragon or chervil and plus added pureed tomatoes)
Marinade:
• 1 tarragon branch (2 tsp)
• 4 basil leaves (2 tsp)
• 1 stalk thyme (2 tsp)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 stalk rosemary (2 tsp)
• 10 grams chopped garlic (1 Tbsp)
• 1 deciliter olive oil (1/3 cup)
• fresh ground black pepper
Method of Preparation :
1. Clean the fish.
2. Cut the fillets and remove the skin. Keep the head.
3. Rub the fillets with the herbs and season with fresh ground pepper.
4. Place the fish in a dish and sprinkle with olive oil before covering and placing in the fridge.
5. Make the fish stuffing.
6. Roll out the dough evenly to 2mm thick and cut into 2 even parts.
7. Drain the sea perch fillets, wipe them with a paper towel and season them with salt.
8. Place one part of puff pastry on a baking sheet.
9. Cover the dough with a layer of crêpes.
10. Place the fish head and 1 fillet on the dough, reshaping the fish.
11. Fill with the fish stuffing and sprinkle with the chopped tarragon and the chopped basil.
12. Put the bay leaf, thyme and rosemary stalks in the head cavity.
13. Cover with the remaining fillet.
14. Carefully wet the borders of the dough and cover with the remaining crêpes and then dough.
15. Seal the borders and cut off any excess dough.
16. Brush with egg wash and make a decoration on the dough.
17. Let it rest in the fridge for 15 min.
18. Cook at 220ºC for 7min, then at 160ºC for 20min. (425oF, and 325oF)
19. The center must reach 65ºC. (150oF)
20. Serve with Choron sauce.
Delicious Links this week
Ready for some comfort food? Yeah, me too. This week, I’ve picked out five uber-comforting dishes for you, with the kicker that these are all pretty easy recipes to follow. See for yourself:
1. From Tea & Cookies comes these (surprise, surprise) cookies that look like they would be awesome with tea. Or milk. Or coffee… they’re Apricot Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies. Their name speaks for itself, no?
2. Over at Smitten Kitchen, this Cantaloupe Salsa has me smitten for several reasons: first of all, I love cantaloupe. So much that I’ll take any excuse to have it. And in a salsa? Chilled, as a side to something spicy? Come to Mama.
3. We’ve all had Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, but Dozen Flours’ Upside Down Sweet Cherry Cake looks like it might be even better. If you like cherries, this is a no-brainer.
4. If this is how geeks eat, then I wouldn’t mind being called one! What geeks eat’s Perfect Potato Salad is made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, chopped fresh parsley, green onions, and mmm… bacon.
5. And finally, a pancake recipe! Because I will never tire of featuring pancake recipes here at bFeedMe. Banana Pancakes from My Baking Addiction are chock-full of good stuff, from fresh bananas to whole milk to vanilla extract to cinnamon. Pour on some maple syrup and a generous dollop of butter.
Colored Sugar Cookies = Happiness
I won’t pretend these are anything but delicious and fun- and decidedly not healthy- cookies. I’m always amazed, though, at how happy these cookies make people. I’m happy when I make them, happy when I eat them, and whenever I’ve gifted them to anyone, they can’t hide the happiness on their faces either.
It must be the colored sugar? Which I make myself, by the way- it’s ridiculously simple- just add a few drops of your favorite food coloring to a little tupperware or sealed ziploc bag of sugar (try to get the larger crystals, if you can) and shake shake shake. I’m particular to pink.
And the cookies? Couldn’t be easier- and absolutely delicious:
Happy-making Sugar Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (or 1 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk or buttermilk. I interchange this with no problems.
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough
Colored sugar crystals
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside. In the bowl of your mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light in color- around 3 minutes. Add egg and milk and beat to combine.
With mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture, and beat until incorporated. Do not overbeat. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Take your chilled dough and roll it out using powdered sugar to keep it from sticking. Cut into shapes. If you don’t want to roll it out, roll it into a cylinder and slice rounds from it. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, just until cookies are beginning to brown around the edges.
While still hot, sprinkle with colored sugar. Smile and enjoy.
Delicious Links this week
This week, we’re linking to recipes that make you think a little bit out of the box– because doing the unexpected in cooking and baking is always a good thing.
1. First up is Brownie Points’ New Tricks for Your Coffee, certainly one of my favorite posts of the week, maybe ever. She gives us ideas on how to “teach your coffee to jump through hoops” – by salting it, of example.
2. Of course, Chocolate & Zucchini’s Sticky Chocolate Cake caught my eye. It uses prunes and maple syrup- two ingredients I’ve never before used in a chocolate cake. But from the photo you just know it’s delicious.
3. Next up are seven spoons’ Fig & Walnut Crisps, which at first glance look kind of like very thin biscotti- then you realize they contain dried figs, walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and (one of my favorite healthy picks) flax seed. Mmm.
4. I’ve only recently discovered the joy that is lemon pasta- now it’s one of my favorite dishes ever. Smitten Kitchen puts a twist on it with this Asparagus, Goat Cheese & Lemon Pasta, which is so simple, yet so obviously glorious.
5. And finally- My Baking Addiction’s Mini Angel Food Cakes are next on my baking list this week, because- well, who doesn’t love Angel Food cake? And to do them in miniature? And topped with strawberries? I’m so there.
Classic Blueberry Muffins
One of our favorite things to do at home is curl up in bed every night with a DVD of a good television show. We’ve been through Rome and Pushing Daisies (so obviously my number one show!), The Celebrity Apprentice and LOST– and now we’re in the middle of the fourth season of Desperate Housewives. Care to guess which of the gals I most enjoy watching?
Of course: it’s Bree. And after watching her visit neighbor after neighbor with basket-fulls of freshly baked muffins, I just had to whip up a batch of that most classic of muffins: Blueberry.
Bree-inspired Blueberry Muffins
1 stick unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup sugar (I use superfine- makes for a softer muffin)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin pan with baking spray (or you can butter and flour it if you haven’t got any spray). Set this aside.
In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together gently. Use some (just about 2 teaspoons) of this flour mixture to coat the blueberries. Set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, around three minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Mix in the vanilla.
On stir speed of your mixer- or by hand- add the flour mixture very gently, just until combined. Add milk, just until combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the blueberries just until combined. Spoon into muffin tin.
Bake about 30 minutes. Do not overbake!
I like to go all-out Bree and wrap up the still-warm muffins in a large napkin or kitchen towel, and serve in a pretty basket.
Delicious Links this week
Because there’s just so much deliciousness out there I want to share with you, I’ll be featuring weekly “Delicious Links” from now on. Here are this week’s most notable recipes and other food-related links:
Chocolate Apple Pie Over at Kayotic Kitchen, amazing looking apple pie (of course all homemade apple pie is amazing to me) made with chocolate.
Pancake Tees A listing of pancake themed t-shirts at Serious Eats. Because, really, who doesn’t need a pancake tee?
Martha’s Kitchen Have a peek into Martha Stewart’s home kitchen. Lovely.
Cowboy Steak An awe-inspiring hunk of meat. Although what really won me over is the accompanying recipe for Chimichurri sauce. Mmm.
Katie Kinser’s French Bread at La Fuji Mama looks so soft and inviting and easy to do.
Super Bowls of Awesomeness
Superbowl Sunday is over! Do you know where your chicken wings are?
Chances are, the answer is in your tummy- along with other traditional Superbowl goodies. Every year, American food bloggers start posting some of the most sinfully delicious recipes in the days leading up to the Superbowl. This year was no different- from spicy Buffalo wings to pico de gallo, from jazzed up onion dips to cheese balls that make you go weak at the knees, the best thing about Superbowl recipes is that they’re actually great all year round. Here, a round-up of my favorites this year:
Chicken Wings
Can you have Superbowl without wings? Ree Drummond over at The Pioneer Woman Cooks posted a link to her classic Wings recipe, which I’ve made several times and love fiercely. For something a little different, check out Priscilla’s Tempura Chicken Wings, which use a sweet soy marinade instead of the usual hot sauce.
Chili
A bowl of Chili is, for me, one of the greatest comfort foods around. This year, Style Slacker’s Chipotle Chocolate Gourmet Chili had my mouth watering just reading the recipe. And because I’m trying to cut down on my meat consumption, I’m loving the Adventurous Vegan’s recipe for Big Paul’s Chili – because yes, Vegans can have fun in the kitchen too.
More Finger Food
Forget the forks and knives, and grab these:
Ed Levine’s Bacon-Cheddar Popcorn – truly inspired. Must. eat. this.
Simply Recipes’ Chicharrones de Pollo – yes, chicken again, but little fried bits of heaven? Yes, please.
And again from the Pioneer Woman, Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies – made with just three ingredients, and seriously addictive.
Sweet Stuff
Slashfood linked to Nigella’s (yes, there’s only one Nigella) Peanut Butter Squares as a Superbowl treat, but really- couldn’t you eat these every day? The same could be said of The Bumbling Baker’s Guinness Cupcakes, which she initially made for St. Patrick’s Day, but are perfect for Superbowl (hello, they’ve got beer in them!) or, like I said, any day.
So there you have it: my favorite Superbowl recipes, to be enjoyed after the Superbowl- because they’re that awesome.