My favorite dish at Restaurant Le Jules Verne (in the Eiffel Tower, Paris) was a Turbot with creamy leek sauce that was a bit fluffy: it was completely smooth and my photo hints it might have used an iSi whipper to get the light texture. It tasted distinctly of leeks and was topped by a couple charred stems of what looked like baby leeks which exuded a beckoning allium aroma.
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| Merluza with Leek Sauce, charred Garlic shoots; served with Mashed Potatoes |
I'm trying to reverse-enginerr this and expect it will take a few tries. This turned out pretty well, a tasty dish, good enough to serve to friends, but not an accurate recreation. It's worth trying again with some minor tweaks, but -- happily -- the sauce texture was rather good without resorting to an iSi and hydrocolloids; to pursue nerdiness for finesse and fluff, see below the recipe for leads.
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| Jules Verne had more green, finesse; and no side dish |
I'm starting with proportions from Martha Stewart (who discards half of her batch and uses chicken stock), Charlotte Puckette (whose recipe is straight forward, adding parsley perhaps for color), and Food.com (which adds Lemon Juice instead of wine).
David Lebovitz says to cook the leeks long and slow in butter with a bit of oil to prevent the butter from browning, and the comments say that letting them brown brings out bitter tastes. The Guardian (and others) says not to waste the green part as it has more flavor but should be cooked longer; it also suggests slicing the dark green parts thinly and then frying until crispy which seems like a good garnish.
For 2 portions:
250 g 1 giant Leek, white to light green, cut in thin rings
30 g 2 T Butter
15 ml 1 T Olive Oil
pinch Salt
60 ml 1/4 C Dry White Wine
120 ml 1/2 C Heavy Cream
? Lime Juice (half of one lime, not all used)
2 whole Garlic Shoots [these have a Catalan name]
340 g Turbot steaks (I used Merluza because I had it)
Olive Oil
Trim Leek root and ragged ends.
Slice from white part to green to quarter but leave bulb end intact; wash any sand, then slice thinly crosswise.
Sautée Leeks in Butter and Oil on low heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until quite soft, about 20 minutes.
Add Wine, increase heat, and reduce until evaporated.
Add Cream and simmer 5 minutes.
Transfer to blender and whiz until it won't get any smoother.
I had to add another 90 ml Wine because it was too thick to blend well.
The result was fairly fluffy -- not as airy as Jules Verne's, but good enough for serving.
Strain through a medium sieve: I had 350 g before, 290 g after sieving.
Trim the Garlic Shoots, slice carefully lengthwise, and cook on a heavy pan to brown. Use a filim of oil since we're trying to char and crisp, not sautée. Cover and weigh down; I used a chunk of granite kitchen counter top sample. Cook on medium, carefully turning to brown both sides. Try and brown the stems too.
The restaurant menu said "cuit au naturel", which we believe translates as steam or poach. My interpretation is they don't want to give the fish any color or flavor from browning you'd get from a sautée.
This didn't occur to me, this time, so I filmed a pan with Olive Oil, and cooked the Merluza (Hake) fairly slowly, covered, to avoid browning. Season with Salt and flip when about half done. Flip once more and check the fish to see if it flakes readily.
While the fish cooks, heat the Leek Sauce; if it sags, fluff with a whisk.
To serve, put a layer of sauce on the plate, add the fish, and top with more sauce.
Garnish with the browed Garlic Shoots.
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| Served with golden mashed potatoes, too similar in color. |
Tasting
This is good, but not leek-y enough. And not green enough. Not what I was aiming for -- a faithful rendition of a Michelin-starred restaurant dish -- but I'd be happy to serve this to friends, even fancy foodie friends. I'd like more leek-taste and Irene wanted less butter.
The Merluza/Hake had a good texture, large firm flakes when cooked gently to 57C/135F or a bit above.
Next time...
Use one 150g Leek, not a 250g behemouth.
Use dark green leek bits to get more flavor and the deeper color that Jules Verne had.
Blanch and shock the green parts first so they don't turn grey when cooking.
Less butter: there was plenty for the 250g leek, so cut the butter at least in half.
Since I had to add Wine to thin it enough to blend, why add the Wine to the pan and reduce it away? Instead, add to blender, then cook off after blended and strained, so we can get the saucy texture we want.
Use Turbot, since that's what Jules Verne used. Or not: the Merluza/Hake was good for this -- firm with large flakes.
Cook the fish sous vide from frozen ("naturale" on the menu suggests steamed or poached).
Fry some green leek rings, or rings from the garlic shoots.
When charring the garlic shoots, use a minuscule film of oil: we want the char.
There was no color contrast when served with mashed potatoes. There wasn't much contrast between the Merluza and the Leek Sauce either. Try and get a more intensely green sauce. Serve a side dish of a very different color: arroz negro, sepia ink pasta,..., something more dramatic. Or use Salmon for the fish: we don't have to use Turbot or anything similar.
To get a really fluffy/airy texture, try the iSi Whipper with Agar Agar fluid gel. It'll be a lot more work but it's "'playing with your food".
iSi Whipper for Fluffy "Espuma"
TL;DR: after reading the below, I'd try the following:
After the first medium sieve, I'd run it through a fine sieve to prevent clogging the iSi. Then add back to the pan, add 0.6-1.0% by weight of Agar, bring to simmer for 5 minutes, then chill until gelled. Whiz to make a fluid gel, heat to serving temperature, 65C/150F, then put in the iSi. Charge with an N2O cylinder and hold at serving temperature in a water bath.
Below are links to techniques and materials:
How can I use an iSi whipper to make a hot foamy sauce, an "espuma"? In my research for Bacalao Espuma, I found Xanthan and Agar Agar didn't gel well, and ended up using potato for the starch.
Cuisine Technology points out "milk holds bubbles better while hot, and cream does better when it’s cold", and "starches is that they work in either hot or cold" but we want to avoid it getting too thick. Also "Lecithin works (and dissolves) in both hot and cold water", and that Agar, once set, will stabilize up to 185F/85C so fine for a hot foam, but the procedure is a bit complicated in that you have to make a "fluid gel".
Amazing Food Made Easy talks about fluid gel foams, amongst others.
There are pointers to lots of inventive preparations on Molecular Recipes. This one for an clam chowder espuma doesn't use anything to bolster the cream before going into an iSi whipper -- like I used in this first attempt for leek cream sauce.
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