Whisk Wednesdays—Blanquette de Lotte aux Petits Légumes (Monkfish in White-Wine Cream Sauce with Vegetables)

Instead of veal stew, this is fish stew with a delicious white-wine cream sauce and a bunch of perfectly cooked vegetables.

Vegetables
In typical French cuisine fashion, I had to prepare all the vegetables separately. Well, actually the pearl onions and peas were allowed to share a pot, and technically the carrots, turnips and mushrooms shared the frying pan (although separately), much like bathing kids, one at a time. The green beans had their own pot to blanch in. So, three pots later (two if you think ahead and blanch the pearl onions/peas and green beans in the same boiling water), the vegetables were cooked and sat on the sidelines while I finished the fish.

Fish and Sauce
Monkfish is an ugly, large bottom-feeder fish. It has a firm texture and a delicate taste that is said to be "poor man's lobster". I was lucky to find some at my local fish store, but other bloggers in our Whisk Wednesdays group had trouble sourcing it. It turns out this fish is one that is overfished or caught in a manner that results in high levels of bycatch. I didn't know this until after I bought it, and my fishmonger said he gets it in every week from the Atlantic. I'll have to investigate this further if I make this again.

I fried the cubed fish in some butter. After it was browned, the fish rested on the side while the shallots cooked in more butter. Then I made a bit of a roux with some flour and the butter from frying the shallots. This cooked for a bit to remove its floury taste. To deglaze the pan, I used some white wine.

I returned the fish to its sauce to finish cooking along with some extra water for added moisture and a Bouquet Garni for added flavor. After simmering for 10 minutes, I removed the fish and set it aside while the sauce simmered for another 20 minutes. By adding the fish first, you're adding more flavor to the sauce, much like using a fish stock would. But you don't want to overcook the fish, so it is removed and the sauce gathers more flavor and mellows the acidity from the wine.

Liaison
After removing the Bouquet Garni, I added the hot sauce slowly to the liaison of cream and yolk, making sure not to curdle the egg. Then I returned everything, including the petits légumes to the pan and warmed it all up (avoiding any bubbles or boiling so that the sauce would not separate). With a sprinkle of parsley, thyme or chervil, this fish dish was ready to eat.

Recipe

Serves 6 (I halved the recipe.)

3 ounces carrots
3 ounces turnips
3 ounces green beans
Salt
3 ounces shelled green peas
12 pearl onions, peeled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Freshly ground pepper
3 ounces button or quartered large mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed, and dried

1¼ pounds monkfish fillets
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ large shallot, chopped fine
2½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup dry white wine
1 Bouquet Garni
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
½ cup heavy cream
Chervil or parsley leaves for garnish
You can find the recipe for Blanquette de Lotte aux Petits Légumes (Monkfish in White-Wine Cream Sauce with Vegetables) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
I loved this fish stew (even better than the veal stew we made earlier). The smooth, creamy sauce with its morsels of vegetables was delicious! And monkfish is a very nice tasting meaty fish. It doesn't have the fishy smell or taste that some fish have. I'm sure this recipe would adapt well to chicken too.

"Monkfish is called the poor man's lobster. As long as people never see what it looks like whole, they love it." — Werner Auer, Executive chef, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Houston

Next Class
Pintadeaux au Chou (Guinea Hen with Cabbage) pages 44-45

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Running total: $1,083.72 + $17.49 (monkfish) + $8.82 = $1,110.03
($8.77 per serving)

Butter used so far: 10 pounds

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::Whisk Wednesdays::We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.

This week, Kayte from Grandma’s Kitchen Table thought we should all share our cookbook holders, just for fun. We were discussing via email where we put our cookbooks while cooking or whether we print off the recipe or use a cookbook holder. I often just put the book on the counter since my cookbook holder often has a pile of ready-to-try recipes in it waiting for me (leaving no room for a book).


After reading this post, my mom sent me a picture from her kitchen. No recipe holder needed. Scotch tape on the knob of the cupboard . . . and a 44 year old recipe (which happens to be my favorite birthday cake recipe — Mahogany Chiffon Cake from the vintage Betty Crocker's New Picture Cookbook, 1961)!


Another Blanquette de Lotte post
Lucy's Kitchen Notebook's Man in Kitchen - Blanquette de Lotte

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