Citizens, Paul Bocuse is a truly legendary French chef!
Paul Bocuse is based in Lyon and is famous for the high quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine. A student of Eugénie Brazier, he is one of the most prominent chefs associated with the nouvelle cuisine, which is less opulent and calorific than the traditional cuisine classique, and stresses the importance of fresh ingredients of the highest quality. Paul Bocuse claimed that Henri Gault first used the term, nouvelle cuisine, to describe food prepared by Bocuse and other top chefs for the maiden flight of the Concorde airliner in 1969.
Bocuse has made many contributions to French gastronomy both directly and indirectly, because he has had numerous students, many of whom have become famous chefs themselves. One of his students was Austrian Eckart Witzigmann, one of four Chefs of the Century and the first German-speaking and the third non-French-speaking chef to receive three Michelin stars. Since 1987, the Bocuse d’Or has been regarded as the most prestigious award for chefs in the world (at least when French food is considered), and is sometimes seen as the unofficial world championship for chefs. Bocuse has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the medal of Commandeur de la Légion d’honneur.
The Culinary Institute of America honored Bocuse in their Leadership Awards Gala on 30 March 2011. He has received the “Chef of the Century” award. On 4 July 2012, in the New York Times the Culinary Institute of America announced they will change the name of their “Escoffier” Restaurant to the “Bocuse” Restaurant, after a year-long renovation.
In 1975, he created the world famous soupe aux truffes (truffle soup) for a presidential dinner at the Elysée Palace. Since then, the soup has been served in Bocuse’s restaurant near Lyon as Soupe V.G.E., V.G.E. being the initials of former president of France Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
This particular recipe is one of my favorites by the Master.
Battle on – The Generalissimo
PrintPaul Bocuse Sea Bass in Pastry with Sauce Choron
Ingredients
- Prepare the sea bass:
- 1 sea bass weighing around 1 ¾ pounds (800 g), skinned
- Table salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil
- 2 packages flaky pastry
- 1 egg yolk
- Make the mousse:
- 3 ½ ounces (100 g) skinless fillet of bass
- 3 ½ ounces (100 g) scallops, rinsed and dried
- Table salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 7/8 cup (200 ml) heavy cream
- ¼ cup (50 g) softened butter
- 1 ounce (30 g) shelled pistachios
- 1 teaspoon tarragon
- Make the sauce Choron:
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 3 shallots
- ¾ cups (150 g) butter
- 1 teaspoon tarragon
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon tomato concentrate
- Table salt
- 1 knife point coarsely ground pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the sea bass
- Cut the fish under the gill, as far as the central bone. Split the skin all along the back.
- The bass is the same fish as the perch. The first is fished in the Mediterranean, while the second is caught in the North Atlantic.
- Slip the blade of the knife under the skin, and peel it back over the whole side, pulling it toward the tail. Do the same thing on the other side.
- Take out the spine by pulling it. Salt and pepper the fish on both sides. Sprinkle it with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Keep it cool in the refrigerator.
- Make the mousse
- Cut the fish into pieces. Put them into the bowl of a food processor, along with the scallops and 2 teaspoons of table salt. Mix. Add ten twists of the peppermill. Add the whole egg and egg yolk, and mix.
- If there is some mousse left over, poach it for a few minutes in simmering water and serve separately.
- Add the cream, mix, then scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the butter. Mix again. Tip the mixture into a bowl. Chop the pistachios and the tarragon and add them. Let harden in a cool place for at least 1 hour.
- You can find shelled pistachios (peeled) in the shops. Cut them with a knife rather than in the food processor, which might reduce them to powder.
- Make the sauce Choron
- Heat the wine vinegar in a saucepan.
- Peel the shallots. Make vertical and horizontal cuts in them, then dice.
- Put them into the vinegar and let it reduce to dry over high heat. Reserve.
- Tip the shallot purée into a small bowl as soon as the liquid has evaporated.
- Melt the butter. Chop the tarragon.
- Put the egg yolks into a saucepan with 2 teaspoons of water. Mix.
- Heat over low heat while beating well, so that the mixture thickens (into a sabayon).
- Take it off the heat.
- While the eggs are cooking over low heat, stir them constantly (in a figure eight) with a whisk to keep them from thickening too fast. When you can see the bottom of the pan clearly, that tells you that the sabayon is thick enough.
- Gradually add the butter while continuing to stir. Add the shallot reduction, the tarragon, then the tomato concentrate. Season with a little salt and pepper.
- Roll out the pastry dough on its paper. Cut two 1 ¼ inch (3-cm) strips, and stick them onto the sides to form a rectangle (if your pastry is round; otherwise roll out a rectangle on greaseproof paper). Lay the bass on the pastry. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Fill a piping bag, without a nozzle, with the mousse. Pipe a little mousse into the gills of the fish. Repeat this into the inside of the fish. Mix the egg yolk with 1 teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt. Spread a little of this glaze on the pastry around the fish, using a brush.
- If you don’t have a piping bag, use a small spoon to stuff the fish with the mousse.
- Roll out the second packet of flaky pastry. Cut off a strip about 2 ½ inches (6 cm) wide and set aside for the decoration. Lay the pastry over the fish. Press all around to make the two layers of pastry stick together. Cut the excess pastry back to within about ¾ -inch (2-cm) of the fish, drawing in the side fins and the tail. Glaze the fish with the egg wash.
- Copy the appearance of fins and tail: Mark the pastry with a ½ inch (12-mm) nozzle for the scales. Draw in the eye and the mouth. Cut a strip of pastry measuring ½ by 6 inch (12 mm by 15 cm). Place it at the base of the head. Cut out a fin and stick it on.
- Make a small ball of pastry and place it on the eye. Glaze again with egg wash. Trim the greaseproof paper to within ½ inch (12 mm) of the pastry. Slide the fish on to a baking tray and bake for 25 minutes. Serve with the sauce Choron.
- Reheat the sauce Choron by putting it into a bain-marie over just simmering water.
- This recipe was originally published in “My Best Paul Bocuse” (Éditions Alain Ducasse).
I’m piscine my pants just thinking about it
sauce Choron ? …