Le Cordon Bleu - Instruction #17; Practical #17

He is loved by all students. In his adorable demeanor Chef Clergue happily pressed through lesson #17.

Instruction #17

• Crisp langoustines, citrus emulsion with olive oil and wasabi
• Pan-dried monkfish, sauce with Provence flavors and heirloom vegetable purée
• Sauternes wine jelly, marbled lemon sorbet and balsamic jus

Langoustines – also known as Norway Lobster – are often prepared in France. Hailing from the Atlantic Ocean, and Mediterranean and North Seas. This creature is versatile as its meaty tail is much larger then common shrimp. Measuring up to two inches long, today’s tails were marinated in olive oil, espelette pepper, and four-spice.

Unraveling Kataifi pastry, Chef rolled each tail into a small package. Leaving the tip exposed for presentation. Middle Eastern descent Kataifi is shredded phyllo dough. Most commonly used for a dessert of rolled dough, honey, and nuts.

Frying each morsel created a delicious crunch. Nicely paired with an herb – chervil, parsley, tarragon, lemongrass, mint, and marjoram – salad. Seasoned with an orange, wasabi, olive oil emulsion.

Fumet, candied lemon, slow-roasted tomatoes, olive brunoise, fennel, parsnip purée, and potato crisps. The list of accompanying items for the main monkfish. Noticing the abundance I inquired.

Chef. Why is there always a long list of ‘other’ items when we prepare monkfish? Is it to cover the flavor or boring-ness?

Chef replied.

Monkfish is easy to prepare. One central bone makes filleting a snap. Cooking is quick and simple. So you have the time.

It all made sense to me. So, I started with the tomatoes. Peeling, seeding, and slicing into petals I popped them in a low 90 degree Celsius oven with some thyme, bay leaf, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Boiled potatoes and parsnips in water and milk, respectively. Individually passed them through a fine-mesh sieve. Buttered each batch. Poppy seeds, spreading thin on a baking sheet, and dried in a 100 degree Celsius oven for an hour finished the potatoes. Whereas, a bit of cream and salt completed the parsnips.

Finished my brunoise and prepared the fumet. Things were rolling forward. Finding myself with a bit of spare time I started to play around. Curled candied lemon peel. Blanched leek strings. And carved a fennel head. All thinking about presentation.

Not a bad dish. Not a great dish either. This average plate I would probably recreate with some alterations. The candied lemon was too sweet for my migraine-prone head. Some more salt would have bettered the potato crisps. And cooking monkfish in clarified butter would have been superior to the oven-bake.

Sauternes wine and gelatin. That’s all the jelly took. Add that to lemon sorbet, blood orange sorbet, and balsamic jus and you’ve got a killer dessert.

All these sorbets sound good. Not to mention simple to make. Only issue is having an ice-cream churner. I used to have the Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Maker and found that it never worked. It could have been my lack of knowledge and skill. Or simply that the darn thing was no good. I am on the look out for a good, small, machine for home. Let me know if you have any suggestions.