Sole à la Daumont

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Flexible boning or filleting knife
• •Shallow ovenproof fish poacher or 13 by 9-inch roasting dish
• •Parchment paper
• •Two teaspoons for shaping quenelles
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Small heavy skillet
• •Large oval serving platter and two broad fish slices

Instructions

1. 1

   Stage every component

   Keep both finished forcemeats thoroughly cold and hold the finished Nantua sauce aside for gentle reheating. If using cod milt, cover it with lightly salted cold water in a small saucepan, bring the water slowly to just below a simmer, and poach for 3 to 4 minutes, until the milt is firm enough to handle but still tender. Cool it, cut it into four even slices, and dry them carefully. If using oysters, skip the blanching and dry them just before breading. Have the truffle, crayfish tails, flour, prepared Anglaise, breadcrumbs, clarified butter, and an oval serving platter ready before proceeding.

   Cold forcemeat holds its emulsion and gives a light filling. If it has softened while you work, return it to the cold for fifteen minutes.
2. 2

   Make mushroom liquor

   Melt 1 tablespoon of the unsalted butter in a small sauté pan. Add the mushroom caps, the water, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of white pepper. Cover with a round of parchment and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until the caps are tender but retain their shape. Lift them out and reserve them. Strain and measure ⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon, exactly 95 ml, of the mushroom cooking liquor; if evaporation has left you short, add enough water to restore the measure.

3. 3

   Fill and reshape

   Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). If the fishmonger has not pocket-boned the sole, work from the former white side: sever the backbone just below the head and just above the tail, slide a flexible knife beneath it without cutting through the outer fillets, then lift the spine away while leaving the flesh joined at both ends. Remove any loose pin bones. Season the cavity lightly, spread in the cold whiting forcemeat enriched with crayfish butter, and fold the fillets back into their natural position. The fish should look whole and untouched, not swollen; if the seam bulges, remove a spoonful of stuffing. Secure only where necessary with short wooden skewers.

   Ask the fishmonger for a sole pocket-boned through the white side, with the head, tail, and end joints intact. Those words describe the job more clearly than simply asking for a boned fish.
4. 4

   Poach the quenelles

   Bring a small saucepan of salted water to the faintest tremble. With two wet teaspoons, shape the whiting forcemeat with cream into four small round quenelles. Lower them into the water and poach for 6 to 8 minutes, turning once, until they feel lightly springy and are opaque at the center. Drain them onto a cloth and cover. If the first quenelle frays, the water is too hot or the forcemeat too warm. Lower the heat and chill the remaining mixture for ten minutes. Ça se rattrape.

5. 5

   Poach the sole

   Rub a shallow ovenproof dish with 1 teaspoon of unsalted butter and lay in the sole, former dark side facing upward. Pour the white wine and the measured mushroom cooking liquor around it, then dot the fish with the remaining 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Press a buttered parchment cover directly over the fish and place the dish in the oven. Poach for 25 to 35 minutes, basting once, until the liquid merely trembles at the edges and the center of the stuffing reaches 145°F (63°C). If the liquid begins boiling, lower the oven to 325°F (165°C) and leave the parchment ajar for one minute; a hard boil tightens the sole before the center cooks.

6. 6

   Warm sauce and garnishes

   While the sole poaches, warm the Nantua sauce over low heat, stirring along the pan floor, until it flows thickly from the spoon. Never let it boil. Nestle the four mushroom caps and four quenelles into the sauce for the final 3 to 4 minutes. Fill each cap with three crayfish tails and a spoonful of sauce, then place one truffle slice on each quenelle. If the Nantua sauce looks oily, remove it from the heat and whisk in 1 tablespoon of cold cream; add the second only if needed. The emulsion will return without thinning the sauce into soup.

7. 7

   Fry the milt

   Heat the clarified butter in a small skillet to 350°F (175°C). Dry the four milt slices or oysters thoroughly, dust each with flour, coat completely in the prepared Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174), and press into the fine breadcrumbs. Fry at the last moment until the crust is crisp and deep gold, about 1 to 2 minutes per side, then drain and season lightly. If the coating starts to slip, stop turning it, spoon hot clarified butter over the top, and let the underside set before moving it again.

8. 8

   Assemble the platter

   Warm the oval platter. Lift the sole from its poaching dish and let it drain for one minute, then transfer it carefully and remove any skewers. Coat the fish generously with the warm Nantua sauce so the sauce clings and the natural outline remains visible. Arrange the four crayfish-filled mushroom caps, four truffle-topped quenelles, and four fried milt slices evenly around it. If the sole opens slightly during transfer, draw the fillets back over the stuffing and cloak the seam with sauce. Never apologize at your own table. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Dover sole has the firmness to survive pocket-boning, stuffing, and transfer without losing its shape. Lemon sole is more delicate and usually too small for this treatment; buy one very large Dover sole and let the fishmonger see the full instruction before cutting.
• •Crayfish is the backbone of Nantua sauce, not a decorative red tail. Frozen cooked crayfish tails are an honest pantry answer when live crayfish are unavailable. Shrimp makes a pleasant shellfish sauce, but the change is not invisible and it is no longer Nantua in character.
• •Cod milt is seasonal and most easily found through a specialist fishmonger or a Japanese market. If it cannot be sourced, four plump oysters preserve the creamy marine contrast and take the à l’anglaise coating well, though they make a softer, brinier garnish.
• •Serve with a dry white Burgundy or a firm, mineral white from the Jura. The wine needs enough body for the cream and crayfish butter, but little overt sweetness; the sauce already supplies all the richness required.
• •Use a warm platter and serve immediately. The sole, quenelles, and sauce are all gentle preparations, and none improves by waiting under a heavy cover.

Advance Preparation

• •The whiting forcemeat enriched with crayfish butter, whiting forcemeat with cream, and Nantua sauce may be prepared one day ahead. Keep the forcemeats thoroughly chilled and reheat the sauce only over gentle heat.
• •The fishmonger may skin and pocket-bone the sole the morning of service. Keep it covered on a tray set over ice in the coldest part of the refrigerator, but do not fill it more than two hours before cooking.
• •The mushrooms and their cooking liquor may be prepared up to four hours ahead. Chill them separately, then restore the caps to room temperature before warming them in the sauce.
• •The quenelles may be poached up to four hours ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Warm them gently in the Nantua sauce; boiling makes them coarse.
• •Blanch and slice the milt earlier in the day, but apply the flour, Anglaise, and breadcrumbs no more than thirty minutes before frying. Frying remains the final act.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 475g)