Can't Help But Share

Well, dear blog readers, for the first time since my first trimester, I pulled out my "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" book. Sweet hubs and I went to Newport a couple of weeks ago and bought some "fresh" Dover sole at the pier. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't as fresh as I'd hoped--I had to freeze it the very next morning due to fishy smell.

What's the best way to fix "iffy" ingredients?

French food, of course!

Tonight I made the Filets de Poisson Bercy aux Champignons (fish filets poached in white wine with mushrooms). This was a very, VERY forgiving recipe considering some hurdles along the way.

Hurdle one: I didn't have dry white vermouth. Accidentally bought regular vermouth, which is brown, which apparently doesn't look good with white fish. And it might overpower the delicate flavor. Since I haven't tried making the recipe, though, I'm none the wiser for it, as the recipe was delicious.

Hurdle two: the recipe called for poaching the fish filets on the stove top in a fireproof baking dish--apparently, this is something that you can use on the stove, in the oven, and with the broiler! After examining more than 15 dishes, I remembered that my 8" Scan pan frying pan is broiler-compatible, since apparently none of my baking dishes are. Oi! It was challenging to get everything to fit in the pan, but we made it happen.

Hurdle three (and a bit of a rabbit trail): the doggone fire alarms! The apartment is rigged with two of them that go off if you so much as pop in a piece of toast that turns remotely brown. Not only did my food emit a mere aroma that set off a fire alarm, but they went off the entire time I was cooking. In fairness to them, the recipe called for using buttered wax paper over the fish in the oven, which promptly burned and set to smoking up the whole place. Fortunately, I caught it in time before it could disintegrate in the food. I don't know how Julia Child used her wax paper, but I think I'll use parchment from now on.

Hurdle four: part of the recipe calls for a butter-flour paste to be mixed with a reduction for the purposes of thickening the sauce. The instructions state: "Bring to the boil." Maybe it's my stove (after all, it boils water in a minute or less), but I managed to put the liquid on the burner and within 20 seconds, everything was burning to the bottom of the pan. Nothing like having a roux/sauce mix burning to the bottom of the pan, and the fire alarms were loving me at this point! So were the neighbors...

BUT, since this is Julia Child we're talking about here and since I'm the servant-less cook who doesn't really know how to make sauces and recipes beyond basic grilling of meats and veggies, this recipe was for me! I quickly removed the carnage of the burning sauce, added 1/4 cup more cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and voila! The most velvety, delicious sauce I've ever made in my LIFE! I could have eaten just the sauce, but the fish needed it more than I did, and it fixed the not-so-fresh sole like a charm. And I learned a new sauce technique to boot! The butter-flour paste blends beautifully when added to hot liquids, but the flour needs the butter to in order to blend well without being lumpy. Must work well with gravies, perhaps? I'll have to try that in the future....No wonder everything tastes better with butter! Ms. Child wasn't kidding!

The ingredients (minus the fish), starting from top left: mushrooms, cream, Vermouth/clam juice mix, swiss cheese, butter/flour paste, lemon juice, butter, butter, shallots, salt-pepper, and, you guessed it: MORE butter!

The finished product, although it doesn't look as appetizing as it does in professional photos. Trust me, though, I...Uh...Well, I'm too old to lick the plate, and so I....Uh...."didn't" lick the plate...Ahem....

This was a photo from my cooking-learning spree prior feeling lousy during my first trimester. No, I don't look this spry anymore, and no, this isn't our apartment anymore. And no, I don't have the busted wooden spoon that I...Well, that I didn't manage to mangle in the blender when I accidentally hit "pulse" while trying to stir thick ingredients...Ahem...Not me!!