Turbotin Daumont

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Flexible fish filleting knife
• •Sturdy kitchen shears
• •Food processor with chilled bowl and blade
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •18-inch (45 cm) oval roasting dish or shallow rimmed roasting pan
• •18-inch (45 cm) warmed oval serving platter
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Two small teaspoons for shaping quenelles
• •Parchment paper

Instructions

1. 1

   Bone the turbotin

   Keep the fish on ice until the board is ready. Lay it pale side up and, following Sole à la Daumont (No. 823), make a neat lengthwise opening over the central ridge without cutting through the dark skin. Slide a flexible knife against the frame to release the flesh on both sides, snip the spine near the head and tail, then lift out the central frame while leaving the fillet ends attached at both extremities. Remove loose rib and pin bones, but preserve the head, tail, fin fringe, and natural outline. A fishmonger can do this through the underside if given those exact instructions.

   Do not ask for four loose fillets. The point is a boned fish that remains connected at the head and tail so it can be rebuilt to look untouched.
2. 2

   Make the quick stock

   Remove the gills from the frame, rinse away any blood, and put the bones into a narrow saucepan with the cold water. Bring it slowly to the barest simmer, skim once, and cook uncovered for 20 minutes without boiling. Strain through a fine sieve and reduce only if necessary to leave about 1½ cups (360 ml / 360 g). Reserve 1¼ cups for the sauce and hold the remainder for adjusting its consistency.

3. 3

   Extract crayfish butter

   Remove the dark intestinal thread from each crayfish tail and refrigerate the tails. Crush the shells and heads coarsely in a sturdy food processor, the honest home equivalent of pounding them in a mortar. Melt the butter over low heat, add the shells, and cook very gently for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often, until the butter is coral-red and smells distinctly of crayfish. Do not let the milk solids brown. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing firmly, and keep the butter barely warm.

4. 4

   Build the forcemeat

   Chill the processor bowl and blade for 10 minutes. Process the whiting with 1¼ teaspoons of the salt, the white pepper, and half the cayenne until smooth and tacky. Add the cold egg white, then pour in all but 2 tablespoons of the cold cream in a thin stream while pulsing. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Poach a teaspoonful in barely simmering water and taste it; the texture should be smooth, springy, and moist. If it turns coarse or leaks liquid, the mixture became warm. Ça se rattrape: chill it for 10 minutes, then pulse in the reserved cream one teaspoon at a time. Reserve about 1 cup (240 ml / 190 g) of plain cream forcemeat for the quenelles, then fold 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of crayfish butter into the remainder.

5. 5

   Re-form the fish

   Season the turbot cavity lightly, then spread in the crayfish-butter forcemeat without packing it hard; the mixture expands as it poaches. Fold the flesh back over the filling and close the underside with short wooden picks and two loose loops of kitchen twine. Turn the fish dark side up and restore the broad diamond outline required by Sole à la Daumont (No. 823). If a small tear opens underneath, lay buttered parchment over it during poaching and plate that side down. The damage is hidden, the structure remains sound.

6. 6

   Prepare mushroom liquor

   Put the whole mushroom caps and sliced mushrooms into a wide pan with the water, lemon juice, mushroom-cooking butter, and a pinch of salt. Cover with a parchment round and simmer gently for 7 to 9 minutes, until the caps are tender but retain their shape. Lift out the 8 caps and reserve them. Strain the cuisson, the mushroom cooking liquor, and measure ⅔ cup (160 ml / 160 g). If there is too much, reduce it; if there is too little, add enough water to restore the measure.

7. 7

   Start Nantua sauce

   Melt the roux butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook for 2 minutes without allowing it to colour. This roux, flour cooked in butter, gives the sauce its quiet body. Whisk in the 1¼ cups of quick fish stock gradually, then add all but 2 tablespoons of the sauce cream. Simmer gently for 8 minutes, whisking occasionally, until the base lightly coats the back of a spoon. Reserve the remaining cold cream for the final emulsion and keep the sauce base warm.

8. 8

   Poach the turbotin

   Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a shallow oval roasting dish lightly with one piece of the poaching butter and lay in the turbotin dark side up. Pour the white wine and measured mushroom liquor around it, dot the remaining butter over the fish, and cover closely with buttered parchment and foil. Poach for 28 to 35 minutes, until the fish yields gently at its thickest point and the centre of the stuffing reaches 145°F (63°C). The liquid should tremble, never boil, because hard heat squeezes moisture from both fish and forcemeat.

9. 9

   Poach the quenelles

   While the turbotin cooks, bring the quenelle water and a pinch of salt to a bare tremble. Shape the reserved cream forcemeat into 8 small rounds with two wet teaspoons, lowering each directly into the water. Poach for 5 to 7 minutes, turning once, until they float, feel softly springy, and reach 145°F (63°C) at the centre. Lift them onto a buttered plate, cover, and keep warm.

10. 10

    Finish Nantua sauce

    Transfer the cooked turbotin carefully to a warmed oval platter and cover it loosely with its parchment. Strain the poaching liquor into a clean saucepan and reduce at a brisk simmer to ⅔ cup (160 ml / 160 g), about 6 to 8 minutes. Whisk it gradually into the warm sauce base, simmer for 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and whisk in 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 42 g) of crayfish butter. The sauce should be coral-ivory, glossy, and fluid enough to coat the fish. If orange fat beads appear, set the pan over cool water and whisk in the reserved cold cream a teaspoon at a time. Ça se rattrape. If the sauce is too tight, loosen it with the reserved stock; do not boil it after the crayfish butter goes in.

11. 11

    Finish the garnishes

    Warm the mushroom caps gently in the garnish butter until glazed, without browning them. Spoon a little Nantua sauce into each cap and arrange 2 crayfish tails over it. Set one truffle round on each warm quenelle. For the milt à l'anglaise, meaning floured, egged, and breadcrumbed, season the slices, coat them first in flour, then in the egg beaten with water, and finally in breadcrumbs. Fry them at the last moment in clarified butter over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until crisp and deep gold outside and opaque at the centre.

12. 12

    Rebuild the platter

    Remove every pick and length of twine from the turbotin. Coat the fish generously with Nantua sauce while leaving the head and tail visible, then arrange the crayfish-filled mushrooms, truffle-topped quenelles, and fried milt in alternating groups around it. Serve the remaining sauce in a warmed sauceboat. Bring the platter to the table immediately. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Chicken-turbot is an old market term for a small young turbot. There is no chicken in the dish. Ask for a fish around 2½ pounds with the head, tail, skin, and fin fringe intact.
• •Hand the fishmonger the boning instruction plainly: remove the central frame through the pale underside, but leave the flesh connected near the head and tail. If they produce four fillets, the Daumont reconstruction is no longer possible.
• •Whole frozen cooked crayfish are the honest preserved choice when live crayfish are unavailable. Tail meat alone will garnish the mushrooms, but it cannot produce the shell-rich butter that defines both forcemeat and Nantua sauce.
• •Order carp or cod milt from a fishmonger and keep it very cold. If it cannot be found, do not disguise another seafood as milt. Serve the remaining garnishes and tell the table what is absent; the sauce and reconstructed fish remain sound, though the full Daumont arrangement is incomplete.
• •Preserved black truffle is correct when fresh truffle is out of season. Drain it well and use thin rounds large enough to read against the pale quenelles.
• •Pour a firm, restrained white Burgundy or a dry traditional sparkling wine. The sauce wants acidity and mineral structure beside its butter and crayfish, not sweetness or heavy oak.

Advance Preparation

• •The crayfish butter can be prepared up to 3 days ahead, covered and refrigerated. Warm it only until pliable before adding it to the forcemeat or sauce.
• •The quick stock and the roux-based sauce base can be made 1 day ahead. Chill them promptly, then reheat the sauce base gently before adding the reduced poaching liquor and crayfish butter.
• •The whiting forcemeat can be made up to 4 hours ahead and held over ice. The turbotin may be stuffed and re-formed up to 2 hours before poaching, provided it remains covered and thoroughly chilled.
• •The mushrooms and quenelles can be cooked up to 4 hours ahead and rewarmed gently. Coat and fry the milt only at the last moment; that crisp crust is part of the dish, not brigade scaffolding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 600g)