This is an amazing dish. It’s worth buying the book just for this recipe. It’s the kind of dish that makes me hate eating at a restaurant because it lets you know that you can do just as good or better at home. If I owned a restaurant, in fact, I’d put this dish on the menu. I’m no Chef, and I don’t say that lightly. It’s also a faily labour-instensive process to make the purée, the roasted vegetables, the vinaigrette, and the fish itself. But boy is it worth it.
Mind you, I wouldn’t use arctic char since you probably would have a hard time getting it wild and sustainable in Montreal (just farmed and sustainable, but I personally choose to avoid it since it tastes like blah. Yes, that’s a flavour…or more so a lack of flavour), but you could use a wild Pacific salmon or try to source the Labrador stuff through the Fish Depot in St. John’s, NL on Duckworth Street, though they’re not good at returning phone calls, I’ve found out.
Anyway, I can’t give the entire actual recipe since this is such an amazing book and you should buy it, but I can give the ingredients and general preparation. There were a few tiny changes I’d make…You could also serve this vinaigrette on other purées and other seafood. Scallops, for example, as the cookbook suggests. Mmm…
Ingredients:
1/2 head cauliflower
1 large apple, with peel, cored and diced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup fresh parsley
for the purée:
Other half of head of cauliflower
2 tbsp mlk (I used almond breeze, which only added a tiny bit of nuttiness to the purée – perfect for attaining the desired earthy taste)
Salt and pepper to taste
Vanilla-Apple Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup clam juice
1/4 cup apple juice (be careful of the sugar. I used an organic sugar-free one and then found that I needed to add about an extra 3 tbsp of honey to make the vinaigrette sweet and flavourful enough. I also had to add an extra 1/2 cup of it and boil it down to a 1/4 cup reduction! So it really depends on the intensity of your apple juice)
1/2 vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise in half, seeds scraped out
1/4 cup dry white vermouth
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (I also think that if my apple cider vinegar had been the Bragg’s-brand stuff I have in Montreal it would have made everything sweeter and more apple-y without adding and reducing more apple juice, so definitely taste and adjust as necessary)
2 tbsp olive oil (this made it really oily. It’s best to use a sweeter olive oil, since the bitter, strong-flavoured ones aren’t going to help you out)
For the fish:
1 lb wild arctic char fillet (or wild Pacific salmon – see above), skin on (I think mine was off and it was just fine)
salt and pepper
1 tbsp high-heat vegetable oil (or other high-heat oil – not olive)
The gist of the recipe is the veggies get roasted then tossed with the parsley, and the rest of the cauliflower gets boiled, drained, mashed with the milk, salt and pepper.
The vinaigrette is the show-stopper, though. And it needs a bit of time. You’re supposed boil all the ingredients (the vanilla bean and seeds included) except the olive oil and simmer until you’ve only got 3 tbsp of liquid left. So I did that, and then I took the vanilla bean out and transferred the contents of the pot to a blender. Then you blend in the olive oil while the motor is on to emulsify. But all I could taste was olive oil!!! It was bitter and oily and a little bit gross. So I put it back in the saucepan with the vanilla bean and added 1/4 cup more apple juice and a tablespoon of honey to sweeten it. And I let it cook down to 1/4 cup total. Still no good.
So I put 1/2 cup apple juice in a small saucepan and boiled it down to about 1 tbsp and added that. Better…but still not very vanilla-y, and still bitter from the oil. But it was as good as it was going to get without just adding more of everything but the oil. The best way around this in the future would be to just add less oil total…and use a sweeter apple juice or some more honey from the get-go.
Anyway, the real trick was to let the vinaigrette sit overnight in a glass container, seasoned with salt and pepper but also with the rest of the vanilla bean sitting in the liquid to infuse. The original recipe says to discard the vanilla bean. First of all, NEVER discard a vanilla bean! Clean it, let it dry, and then add it to a bag or container of sugar, or some rum or Amaretto to let it infuse eternally (or until you eat the sugar or drink – or cook with – the booze). Second of all, it’s not like you’re going to get TOO much vanilla flavour out of the bean by boiling for 10 minutes, so you might as well let it infuse. That’s why it’s best to make the vinaigrette the night before, so there’s time. If you have to serve right away the sauce probably won’t be that flavourful.
When I put the vinaigrette overnight I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, and when I tasted the dish the next day I could have cried from joy! I could taste the vanilla! You grill the fish in a frying pan with the high-heat oil until brown (about 3 minutes on the first side and 1 minute on the second – not long at all!), and the place it on top of the cauliflower purée surrounded by the roasted cauliflower and red onions. Then drizzle with (or pour over…) the vinaigrette.
Wow is that good…I could eat the purée every other day for the rest of my life topped with the vanilla vinaigrette. The fish was amazing – real flavour it in char, for once – but I could honestly just eat the purée and vinaigrette.
Buy this book. Make this recipe. Invite me for dinner.
Had to let it sit and marinate overnight – and way too oily!
Leave a Reply