Timbale de Filets de Soles Carmélite

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •18 cm by 7.5 cm deep springform or charlotte mold
• •Parchment paper and pastry weights
• •Food processor with chilled bowl and blade
• •Wide 28 cm sauté pan
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Broad serving spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the timbale pastry

   Combine the flour and pastry salt, then rub or cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few small flakes remaining. Add the whole egg and 3 tablespoons of ice water, mixing only until the dough holds when pressed; add the final tablespoon of water a teaspoon at a time if dry flour remains. Press the dough into a thick disc, wrap it, and chill for 30 minutes. This pâte à timbale, a sturdy timbale pastry, must support a generous filling, so keep it tender but not fragile.

2. 2

   Bake the shell

   Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and butter an 18 cm by 7.5 cm deep springform or charlotte mold. Roll the dough ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. Cut a circle for the base and a long strip for the wall, allowing a ¾ inch (2 cm) overlap; press the seams firmly together and chill the lined mold for 20 minutes. Line it with parchment and fill with pastry weights or dry beans to the top so the wall cannot slump. Bake for 25 minutes, remove the weights carefully, brush the interior with the egg-yolk wash, and bake for another 12 to 15 minutes, until deeply butter-gold and dry. If a seam opens, brush it with yolk, press a thin scrap of pastry over the gap, and return it to the oven. Ça se rattrape. Unmold carefully and hold the shell in a 250°F (120°C) oven.

3. 3

   Build the fish forcemeat

   Chill the food processor bowl and blade for 10 minutes. Pulse the cubed fish with ½ teaspoon of the fish salt and half the white pepper until smooth and sticky, then add the cold egg white. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the cold cream and pulse in the remainder in three additions, stopping as soon as the farce mousseline de poisson, the silky fish forcemeat, holds a soft peak. Pulse in the lobster butter just until evenly coral-colored. Keep the mixture below 50°F (10°C); if the bowl becomes warm or the forcemeat looks greasy, stop and chill it for 15 minutes before continuing. Poach a teaspoon in the fumet until fully opaque, taste it, and adjust the seasoning. If the test is too firm, fold the reserved cream into the forcemeat.

4. 4

   Roll the sole

   Pat the eight sole fillets thoroughly dry and season them lightly with the remaining fish salt and white pepper. Lay each fillet with its smoother former-skin side upward, spread about 2 tablespoons of forcemeat over it without reaching the edges, and roll from the narrow tail end toward the thicker end. Set the rolls seam-side down and chill for 10 minutes so they hold their shape.

5. 5

   Poach in fumet

   Bring the fumet to 175°F (80°C) in a wide sauté pan, keeping it below a simmer. Arrange the rolls seam-side down in one layer and cover them with a parchment cartouche rubbed with the softened butter. Poach gently for 7 to 9 minutes, until the centers reach 145°F (63°C) and the fish feels just firm when pressed. Boiling tightens the sole and can force out the forcemeat, so lower the heat at the first bubble. Lift the rolls onto a warm tray and drain them well. Reserve ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of the fumet.

6. 6

   Prepare lobster and truffle

   Separate the tail meat from the prepared Homard à la New-burg (with raw lobster) (No. 948), then slice the meat neatly across the grain. Cut eight fine, complete slices from the truffle for the top of the timbale and slice the remainder for the filling. Bring the warm pastry shell to the serving platter now; once the sauce and garnish meet, there must be no waiting.

7. 7

   Warm without boiling

   Put the lobster sauce in a wide saucepan over low heat and stir until glossy and thoroughly warm. Add the sole rolls, lobster slices, and truffle from the filling, turning everything gently in the sauce until it reaches 165°F (74°C). Do not let it boil. If the sauce tightens, loosen it with reserved fumet one teaspoon at a time. If the cream separates, lift out the fish and lobster, put 1 tablespoon of cold cream in a clean saucepan, and whisk the split sauce into it spoonful by spoonful off the heat; return the garnish only when the sauce is smooth. Ça se rattrape.

8. 8

   Fill and serve

   Transfer the sole rolls and lobster slices into the hot timbale shell with a broad spoon, then pour the truffle-rich lobster sauce around them until the shell is generously filled. Deck the surface with the eight reserved truffle slices. Carry it straight to the table while the pastry is crisp and the sauce gleams. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask the fishmonger to skin and fillet four small sole, and request enough clean sole or whiting trimmings for the forcemeat. Small, flexible fillets roll neatly; thick fillets split or make a timbale too bulky to serve.
• •Lobster butter is part of the dish, not decoration. Buy a sound prepared beurre de homard from a fishmonger or make it separately from lobster shells and real butter. Plain butter gives richness but loses the crustacean flavor the source deliberately carries into the forcemeat.
• •Fresh black truffle is splendid when available, but a good whole preserved truffle is the classical pantry’s honest answer. Drain it well and save any truffle juice for another sauce. Truffle oil and paste cannot supply the fine slices required here.
• •The filling must be hot before it enters the shell, yet the sauce must remain below a boil. Use a thermometer if the dinner table is distracting you; this is precisely the evening when somebody will ask where the corkscrew has gone.
• •Serve with a full, dry white Burgundy or a dry Champagne. The wine needs enough body for cream, lobster, and truffle, but no sweetness beside the Marsala already carried by the New-burg sauce.
• •A filled timbale does not improve in storage because its sauce softens the pastry. If there are leftovers, remove the filling from the shell within 2 hours, chill it promptly, and reheat it gently the following day without boiling.

Advance Preparation

• •The pastry dough can be mixed and chilled one day ahead. The shell can be baked up to 4 hours before dinner, then refreshed for 8 minutes in a 300°F (150°C) oven before filling.
• •Prepare the Homard à la New-burg (with raw lobster) (No. 948) earlier the same day. Chill the lobster meat and sauce separately and promptly, then begin their gentle reheating only after the sole rolls have been poached.
• •The fish forcemeat and stuffed sole rolls can be assembled up to 4 hours ahead and kept tightly covered below 40°F (4°C). Poach them shortly before the final warming.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 485g)