CEVICHE:
I have to admit, this was pretty fun to make. Ceviche involves "searing" the raw fish using an acid, normally from a citrus fruit like lemon or lime. The protein denatures as it is soaked in the acid. This causes the fish to firm up in texture and change its color. The longer you soak, the firmer and tougher it gets. A thin sear is something you want. we did it for 20 mins, it had a pretty good yield of results!
After cooking salmon for 20 mins in acid (lemon juice)
I tried to be a little bit Asian in this ceviche. Additions of ginger juice and chili padi was to attain a slight kick for this dish. Though Ben mentioned it might have been a bad choice.
Ceviche of salmon with lemon and orange juice, ginger juice,
orange segments, chilli, basil, red onions
Which actually was. (The bad decision I mean). The ginger juice gave it a rather heavy, dull form of spiciness, as opposed to a lighter more refreshing feel (Ben's description). It was supposed to be VERY sour, enough to give you goose bumps, said Ben. But Gordon had never tasted a ceviche before, and he knows not of how it tastes. "I thought it would've been a good idea to add sweet orange juice in!" exclaimed Gordon. "Well, it sucks, and now due to that it lacks the OOMPH." Ben rebuked. The end.
Well if i ever do it once more I think i know just how it should be!
EN PAPILLOTE:
En Pappillote is basically wrapping the fish in a bag, filled with herbs and other fruits or onions to perfume the fish while its baked. Its basically steaming the fish in the bag, so its vital to make sure its wrapped up tightly. A short 15 mins at a 180 deg oven should give you a moist result.
Salmon en Papillote with lemon, basil, red onions, salt, pepper
I was trying to play it safe and baked it for another 5-7 mins, which gave me a rather disappointing fish. Slightly dry, overcooked, lost some of its sheen....just like my life. The proper one should have a glistening contrast to it, nice juices seeping out of it and slides off, rather then flaking. If you see white substances piercing through the flesh it's a sign that it's pretty much over done.
Salmon en papillote
We chose to serve this on a chopping board to give it a warm, rustic feeling.
Ratatouille - Red, orange, green peppers, aubergines, courgrettes, onion, tomato
I wanted to give the ratatouille more texture. Instead of stewing it along with the tomato sauce, i sauteed the vegetables first. Peppers were roasted before hand in the oven to remove the skin, then sauteed for a while in olive oil. Once the vegetables are done thrashing around in a hot pan, i spooned in the tomato sauce and allowed the vegetables to to coat themselves lavishly in the rich tomato sauce.
Salmon en papillote on a bed of ratatouille topped with pickled cucumbers
I think this went pretty well together. The rich salmon gave the palate a nice coat of flavors, then the ratatouille, with its crisp and slightly tangy flavor gave it a lift. Due to the fact that the vegetables were not stewed in the tomato sauce, they all retained their original flavors, and gave the ratatouille a very complex but yet crisp feel.
EN CROUTE DE SEL:
In crust of salt, i think that's what it means. Basically creating a salt crust oven, to both marinate the fish and to bake it in its own moisture. The salt draws the moisture out due to its hydroscopic attribute, and serves to intensify the flavor of the fish. Lemon and herbs are filled in the cavities of the fish so as to generate desirable flavors and steam.
Preparing salt bake
Basically you need a lot of salt. For this small sized sea bass which was approximately 7-800 grams? It needed around the same weight of salt to fully coat it, which was around 800 grams. You can choose to flavor the salt however you like. I chose rosemary, pepper and nutmeg. It does give the fish a slightly more appealing aroma, but taste wise it does little. Mix the salt with egg whites from 1 and a 1/2 egg. This allows the crust to harden and encase the fish to retain the heat while it bakes. Bake it in an oven 200 deg for around 15 mins. Depending on the size of the fish.
After baking
The crust should form into a hardened cocoon of salt. It is not advisable to keep the crust encasing the fish for too long as it continues to bake inside, and the salt is also continously extracting moisture from the fish. Now that you are done marvelling at this mysterious cocoon of fishy goodness, time to smash it.
Cracking the salt crust
Salt shall fly. Grab a vacuum cleaner. And also, hot as hell. Be careful when you're doing this or you'll end up squealing like a wuss like i did.
Retrieve seabass from salt crust
Remove the skin from the fish, it lost all its moisture and is just chewy and dry, very bad for your kidneys as well because, it's gonna be hell of a salty skin. The skin should peel of very easily from the fish. Simply remove the head, make a cut on the fish at the part just before the meat ends near the tail, and peel off the skin. Slide your knife gently down the spine of the fish, and slowly tease the flesh out.
Seabass en croute de sel served on a bed of warm potato and mushroom salad
The warm potato salad dried up while we were having the shoot T_T I should have made the cream sauce separately and had it poured over when we wanted to eat it. The fish was slightly over done sadly, playing it safe for fish caused me a huge mistake, I should have more confidence in my timing next time. The salad was supposed to moisten up the fish with its cream sauce, but due to the fact that the potatoes actually sucked them all up like sponges made it all dry. The mushrooms were still juicy which was the good part. The flavor of the fish was also intense, I wouldn't say it was a total failure, but not a good enough effort.
WINE PAIRING:
Left: Pooley, Coal River Tasmania Australia, Riesling 2011
Right: Ashbrook, Magaret River Australia, Chardonnay 2009
The riesling had a slightly more acidic tang to it, it was a refreshing choice and went pretty well with the salt baked sea bass. The Chardonnay was a confusing one. It didn't really compliment the salmon, nor the sea bass. But it complimented the potato salad hahaha! But, yet when we had the sea bass together with the potato salad it gave us another dimension. Wine really is confusing to me. I feel this was a rather complicated wine pairing session, this wine went with this part but didn't in another part. I thought it was pretty enjoyable and fun though. "I" am Gordon, nice to meet you, and i know little about wine. -_-
Cook, eat, drink and be merry!
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