Opah or moonfish is found in Hawaii and has a fatty flesh, somehow like tuna and salmon. It’s a unique fish due to its flat and round shape and color. I really like its texture and you can prepare like you would any fish with that dense texture. “Nage de poisson” literally translated into “fish swim” is a culinary term used to describe a fish or seafood that is cooked in a broth of court-bouillon (I believe court-bouillon is also used in English). It’s a light and healthy cooking method and very flavorful, depending on what you use on your broth.

Of course, there are many ways to flavor the broth, you could also use saffron, fresh herbs, spices, etc.. but I wanted to keep it simple, fresh and clean.

The sweetness of those colorful carrots combined to the vinegar added in the broth make this dish very well balanced.

Usually, this cooking method is quite popular among those who want to keep a thin waist line…it’s healthy while being delicate and flavorful, so a winner in my book.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 fillets of opah
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup fava beans, peeled
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3/4 cup (or 20 cl) dry white wine
• 0.5 oz (or 15 g) sugar
• 2 tbs raspberry vinegar
• 5 fl oz (or 15 cl) water
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Bring water to a boil and cook fava bean for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and peel the beans. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan and add carrots. Cook for a few minutes. Add wine, sugar and vinegar, cook at high temperature and let the wine reduce. Add Opah and cover with water. Add salt. Let cook the fish until cooked all the way through, then add fava beans. Serve in soup plates, with broth, fish in the center and the vegetables on top. Add a good amount of freshly crushed black pepper on top.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2012/08/i-wish-i-could-swim-nage-of-moonfish-with-fava-beans-and-carrots/feed/ 1 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/02/the-jealousy-of-the-salmon-salmon-a-lorange-on-braised-fennel/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-jealousy-of-the-salmon-salmon-a-lorange-on-braised-fennel http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2010/02/the-jealousy-of-the-salmon-salmon-a-lorange-on-braised-fennel/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:41:42 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=7115 La jalousie du saumon – Saumon à l’orange sur fenouil braisé

The salmon got a little jealous and was raving to be coated with a citrusy orange sauce too, because he thought that not only canard can be made “à l’orange”, he was the perfect candidate for the title too…and he was. On peut faire plein de choses avec des oranges!

The fennel at my local grocery store has been so round, and perfect looking that I could not resist and bought a lot of those beautiful bulbs. After the shrimp salad, now the salmon dish. You might think that fennel-orange and fish-fennel are two déjà vu combinations, it might be, but the secret here is the broth that makes this salmon a wonderful fragrant dish. Then when you love something, you can never get enough of it.

What I like about this dish is is the lightness of its fragrance, the salmon already has a strong flavor so I don’t like to add too many spices and powerful ingredients to a naturally strong ingredient, then I think it is confusing to your palate when you eat it, well mine gets very sensitive and does get confused easily if too many strong ingredients are combined. C’est la confusion totale! I served this with barley pilaf, whose little crunchy texture accompanied the whole dish very well.

I used some herbs to enhance the broth and that’s basically where the fragrance comes from. I was so happy I finally planted a bunch of herbs in the garden, so let’s hope the three semi-abandoned cats hanging outside the house won’t come and dig them, I am not too familiar with cats’ behavior but seems like they like to play with plants…and catch birds…and seriously have been scaring me a little due to their giant size and the way they are staring at me and my bird through the windows, I haven’t felt any love coming this way.

Ingredients for 2

For the fish and fennel

• 2 salmon fillets, skinless
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced thickly
• Juice of 1 orange + zests
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• flour for coating the fish
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

For the broth

• 1 leek, cut in chunks
• 1 carrot, cut in chunks
• 2 celeri sticks
• 1 onion, cut in quarters
• 1 tomato cut in quarters
• 2 bay leaves
• 6-7 basil leaves
• 1 tsp fish fumet
• 6 black peppercorns
• 2 cups water

Preparation

Start preparing the broth, by adding all ingredients together with 2 or more cups of water. Let it simmer for one hour, adding more water if necessary. At the end of cooking time, when broth has reduced, you need about 1.5 cups broth. Drain and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a pan, and add fennel. Let it cook at high heat until both sides are golden brown (about 5-7 minutes), add salt and pepper. Add crush garlic, stir for about 30 seconds, then add 2 ladles of broth. Reduce heat and let it cook all the way through (about 15-20 minutes).

Heat olive oil in a pan. Coat fish with flour and saute in oil. Let it brown on both sides, then add orange juice, 2 ladles of broth and wine. Let it reduce.

I had a conversation with my mom this morning, she told me she made passatelli, suddenly I got the irresistible urge to make them too. When I lived at home, I was never a fan of them, probably because that soup was served way too often. Between my grandma and my mom, we ate passatelli maybe once a week. When you eat something all the time, the excitement goes away. I guess tastes change when you grow up and move out of your country.

This is a regional soup very common in Romagna and Marche regions of Italy, it’s traditionally made for some festive occasions, but then people end up making them when they feel like it. It’s another peasant dish made basically with breadrumbs, parmesan, eggs, nutmeg and if you want lemon peel (I like it better without it, I think the lemon is too strong).

The original recipes is made with a chicken or beef broth (or sometimes a combination of both). I like it also with just a vegetable broth. Here, the broth has been enhanced with chards and carrots “en julienne” (cut in tiny strips), so you get a little texture and color and of course the benefits of eating vegetables.

I always ate broth made with hen instead of chicken, hen is fatter and takes hours to cook, so it’s mainly used in broths. Nowadays people use chicken in their broth, probably because it takes less time to cook. It’s important to “degrease” the broth from the deposits and fat the meat produces (if you’re using meat) while cooking, so you’ll get a clear and healthy broth. When making passatelli usually, you eat the boiled meat along with the soup called “lesso“, I have never been a fan of it, and remember my dad pouring tons of black pepper and olive oil on top of his meat.

You need to have that particular kind of potato masher (schiacciapatate) like this one, to make those little round and long threads (not sure how to describe them).  There is another tool used to make passatelli but I don’t think it’s available in the US.

I like to make my own breadcrumbs with old and hard baguette or what is called “Italian bread”, I grate it and get great quality crumbs. The ones you buy already made in stores tend to have an unpleasant taste, and for the passatelli home made crumbs work much better and hold the paste together well, so when you drop them in the broth, they don’t break.

Ingredients for 4

For the broth

• 4 cups or more of water
• 1 leek
• 1 carrot
• 2 celeri stalks
• 1 turnip
• 1 onion with 4 cloves
• 1 bay leave
• 1 thyme sprig
• 1/2 hen or chicken, or beef
• salt and pepper

For the passatelli

• 250 g parmesan, finely grated
• 250 g breadcrumbs
• 3 tbs flour
• 4 eggs
• nutmeg
• lemon peel (optional)
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the broth

Using a large pot, mix ingredients with water and let it simmer for a while at least an hour. If using hen, it might take over 2 hours. Regularly, remove the deposits you get on the surface of your broth (especially, if you are using a meat based broth).

When the broth is cooked, remove all the vegetables and residues and drain it through a sieve to get a clear broth. Add carrots and chopped chards, and let it cook for a few minutes, until the carrots are cooked.

For the passatelli

In a mixing container, mix, breadcrumbs, parmesan, eggs, flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix well and let it rest for about an hour. You need to have a hard enough mixture, but not too hard or it will not go through the potato masher.

Fill the potato masher with the dough mixture, bring the potato masher on top of boiling broth and squeeze to produce the passatelli, then cut the base with a knife. The passatelli will drop on top of your pot. Cook for one minute or so. Remove from the stove, sprinkle wit olive oil and serve hot.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/12/the-poor-soup-passatelli-revisited-with-chards-and-carrots/feed/ 20 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/11/another-version-of-pot-au-feu-monkfish-and-cod-pot-au-feu-with-orange-saffron-broth/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=another-version-of-pot-au-feu-monkfish-and-cod-pot-au-feu-with-orange-saffron-broth http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/11/another-version-of-pot-au-feu-monkfish-and-cod-pot-au-feu-with-orange-saffron-broth/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:40:29 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=4938 Pot-au-feu de la mer – Pot-au-feu de lotte et cabillaud à l’orange et saffran

Traditional Pot-au-feu in France is mainly a dish of boiled beef slowly cook in a broth with various vegetables such as carrots, celeri, leeks, onions, etc…and a bouquet garni which is a bunch of different herbs tied together to enhance the broth (such as thyme, laurel parsley, marjoram, etc…). Usually, the meat is served along with vegetables and broth on the side. It’s considered a rustic dish but quite popular among the French. Every country has its own version of Pot-au-feu. I am not a fan of boiled meat and rarely ate it. My mom used to make the Italian version called lesso with chicken and beef together and that was certainly not my favorite dish growing up.

It’s not really a kids “friendly’ dish. Big chunks of meat with big chunks of vegetables were something I would dread. Good thing tastes do change when you become an adult, can you imagine eating all your life “kids” food? Actually, I do know some people who never developed a palate and still eat “kids food”. I think they’re missing so many wonderful sensations and pleasures.

The good thing is now I do eat Pot-au-feu, but the fish version and I cannot get enough of it. I absolutely love this dish, the flavors are incredible. The citrusy flavor of the broth combined with saffron delicate fragrance are such a perfect combination. I do believe that whatever you make with meat, you can make the same thing using fish, maybe not all of it, but most of it.

That is my first real meal I am having after this hectic week and it’s even more enjoyable…

You can serve this fish with vegetables around, along with some broth on the side and tiny steamed potatoes. I found some teeny tiny potatoes at the store, that I had to buy them. There were not bigger than a quarter, some of them even smaller, the cutest potatoes I have ever seen…and they’re called “teeny tiny potatoes”, that’s what it’s written on their bag.

Monkfish is also very popular in France, its texture remains very firm and lotte au poivre vert, monkfish in a green peppercorn sauce is one of our traditional and popular monkfish dish.

Ingredients for 2

• 1/2 lb monkfish
• 1/2 lb cod fillet
• 2 leeks, cut in big chunks
• 2 carrots, cut in big chunks
• 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cut in big chunks
• 1/2 lb teeny tiny potatoes or fingerling potatoes
• 1 blood orange, sliced
• juice of 2 blood oranges
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 bouquet garni (thyme, laurel, parsley, marjorma, etc…)
• 1 tsp dried fish fumet (fish broth)
• saffron threads
• vegetable broth
• olive oil for drizzling
• salt and pepper

Preparation
To prepare the broth, mix fish fumet, vegetable broth, juice of oranges, the onion with cloves stucked in it, garlic and bouquet garni of herbs. Bring to a boil and cook for about 10-15 minutes at low heat.

Steam potatoes and keep warm.

Add cut vegetables to the broth and cook until the vegetables are cooked. Add fish, saffron and blood orange slices. Cook for about 10 minutes until the monkfish is cooked. Cod tends to cook faster, so to prevent it from breaking apart, remove cod pieces from the broth and let monkish cook a little longer.

Remove vegetables and fish from the broth, filter the broth. Place fish in a large dish, then place vegetables around it. Sprinkle with olive oil and serve with potatoes on the side warm broth and toasted country bread.