Salmon in spinach with pilaf rice

This recipe is a much simplified version of a dish by the German chef Heinz Winkler. He dressed the dish with caviar...

Preparation : 20 minutes

Cooking time : 20 minutes + 20 minutes for the pilaf rice

Ingredients for 4

400 gr salmon filet

100 gr white fish flesh

1 egg

10 cl double cream

Ground nutmeg

30 large spinach leaves

Sauce :

20 cl fish stock

20 cl white wine

20 cl Noilly Prat (or similar dry Vermouth liqour)

1 shopped shallot

10 gr butter

Salt, pepper

Pilaf rice:

1 1/2 glasses long grain rice

20 gr butter

1 chopped onion

1 bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay-leaves wrapped together)

Pilaf rice

• Softened the chopped onion in 10 gr of butter.
• Add the rice, and heat for a few minutes without colouring the rice.
• Add 1.5 l of boiling water, season with salt and pepper and add the bouquet garni.
• Bring to the boil, cover with oven-proof paper, and a lid.
• Cook in the oven at 200°c for between 16 and 18 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, and let the rice rest and rise for a few minutes.
• Place the rice in a metal bowl, add 10 gr of butter, and mix the rice with a fork.
• Keep warm, covered with the oven-proof paper.

Salmon in spinach leaves

• Divide the salmon into equal pieces of around 100 gr.
• Remove the stalks from the spinach, and plunge into boiling water for 5 seconds. Drain, and spread onto a dry towel.
• Cut the white fish flesh into small chunks, season with salt and pepper, and mix in a food processor.
• Add the egg, the double cream and the ground nutmeg.
• Spread a piece of plastic film onto a chopping board.
• Lay out a rectangle of spinach leaves (two-layers thick).

• Spread the fish mousse on top, about 1cm thick, using a spatula. Place the seasoned salmon filets on top.

• Trim the plastic film, and wrap the spinach leaves over the top of the salmon.
• Steam-cook for 10 minutes.

Noilly Prat sauce :

• Place the Noilly Prat, white wine and chopped shallot in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
• Add the fish stock, and reduce by one-third.
• Add the butter, and simmer for 6 minutes.
• Liquidiez the sauce, and then add in caviar or lumpfish eggs.

Slice the salmon, and dress the plate with the sauce.

Cabbage with duck fillet stuffing, Celery and apple brandade

A recipe from the magazine Avantages. This is a recipe I often come back to, because it's simply my favourite amongst many. This is a recipe for a Sunday, quite long to prepare but fairly simple to execute. I also shorten it during the week, to use up left-over meat and vegetables.

I accompany here with a recipe for a brandade of celery and apple, which we discovered during a lesson from Charles Soussin in the Fraîch'attitude kitchen with fellow-bloggers Ester, Doriann, Marie-laure, Adèle, Requia, Muriel and Marie. A very useful lesson, which makes a good addition to the numerous cookery books...

And the girls were so pleased with their apple sauce...

Preparation : 1 h 30

Cooking : 45 minutes

Ingredients for 6

16 large cabbage leaves

250 gr finely chopped cooked ham

1 duck fillet confit

1 tbsp duck fat

125 gr diced bacon

250 gr onions

125 gr carrots

1 stick of celery

25 gr chopped parsley

1 mixed herb bouquet (2 twigs of thyme, 2 laurel leaves)

1 pressed garlic clove

1 shallot

24 slightly crushed juniper berries

1 pinch of ground nutmeg

50 gr chopped white bread + 50 gr chopped granary bread

10 cl sweet white wine

6 chopped plums

3 tbsp milk

2 eggs

Celery and apple Brandade (recipe by Charles Soussin) :

1/2 celeriac

1/2 lemon

4 apple

1/2 l milk

• Cut the onions, shallot, carrots and celery into small cubes.
• Melt the duck fat in a frying pan. Add the vegetables, the herb bouquet, and soften for 5 minutes, whilst stirring.

• Add the garlic and white wine. Cover for 5 minutes, on a medium heat.
• Add the diced bacon, uncover, and let the bacon cook. Remove from the heat, and discard the herb bouquet.
• Add the chopped cooked ham, the chopped bread, the parsley and the juniper berries. Mix well.
• Remove the skin and any bone from the duck fillet. Chop the meat very finely, add it into the frying pan, and add the milk.
• Beat the eggs with a fork and add into the frying pan (still off the heat), mix well.
• Preaheat the oven to mark 6 (200°). Half-fill a large dish with water and place in the oven.
• Boil the cabbage leaves for 5 minutes in salted water. Drain, then place in cold water.
• Trim the edges of the cabbage.

• Line the serving dish with plastic film, and brush the lining with duck fat.
• Layer the cabbage leaves to line the walls and bottom of the dish (let the leaves on the side overlap the outside of the dish.)

• Pour in half of the stuffing, followed by half of the chopped plums.
• Then cover with a layer of cabbage leaves, before filling the rest of the dish with the remaining stuffing and plums.

• Fold the cabbage leaves lining the sides of the dish over the top to close the terrine.

• Cover the whole dish with aluminium foil, and place in the oven in the bain-marie.
• Bake for 40 minutes.
• Before tuning out, turo the dish over a leave for a while to allow any condensation to run off.

Celery and apple Brandade :

• Peel the celeriac with a knife, and pour a little lemon juice over.
• Cut into small cubes.
• Cover with milk in a saucepan, and cook for 30 minutes.
• Mix into a purée with a liquidizer.
• Boil the peeled and chopped apples in water (no sugar) into a compote, and mix into the celeriac puree.
• Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the terrine warm with the celery purée, accompanied with roast chestnuts.

Salmon fishcakes

A quick and easy recipe to prepare. The secret of good fishcakes is to use fresh fish, and home-made potato puree and breadcrumbs. Other white fish or even smoked haddock will work well with this recipe.

Preparation : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Ingredients for 4

450 gr cooked salmon
450 gr potatoes (floury type) boiled and mashed
25 gr softened butter
2 tbsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp fresh dill
1 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley
Juice of 1/2 lemon
15 gr plain white flour
1 beaten egg
150 gr of breadcrumbs
4 tbsp oil
Salt and white pepper

• Crush the cooked salmon with a fork, making sure that no bones or skin remain.
• Mix the salmon with the the boiled and coarsely mashed potatoes in a large bowl.
• Add in the softened butter and mustard seeds. Mix well, then add in the dill, parsley and lemon juice. Season with salt and white pepper.
• Divide the mixture into 8 parts, and with each, form into a ball and then flatten slightly into a disc.
• Coat each disc first in flour, then beaten egg, and finally in breadcrumbs.
• Warm the oil in a very hot frying pan.
• Fry the fishcakes until golden brown.
• Drain with absorbant paper, and serve hot.

Fishcakes served with a simple salad

Tournedos Rossini and braised endives

This is a real French classic, "le tournedos Rossini", which legend has it the famous composer, who was rather a gourmet, passed on to the chef at the Café Anglais.

Preparation : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Ingredients for 4

4 beef tournedos cuts

4 slices of bread

100 gr of part-cooked foie gras

1 truffle

20 cl veal stock

10 cl Madera wine

140 gr butter

1 tbsp oil

Salt, pepper

As all the ingredients are cooked seperately, everything must be kept warm between hot plates.

• Cut circles from the sliced bread the same diameter as the tournedos. Fry both sides until golden in a little butter.
• Fry the tournedos in the oil with 20 gr of butter for 1 to 2 minutes each side. Season with salt and pepper, and keep warm.
• Cut the foie gras into round discs of the same diameter as the tournedos. Warm them gently in the frying pan. Cut the truffle into 8 thin slices, and grate the remainder.
• Place the bread circles onto the serving plates, with the tournedos placed on top, and finally followed by the foie gras. Keep warm.
• Pour the madera wine into the same frying pan and leave to reduce. Add the veal stock, the truffle juice, along with the grated and sliced truffle. Reduce.
• Off the heat, melt the remaining butter into the sauce.
• Dress the tournedos with the sauce, and 2 slices of truffle per tournedos.

Braised endives from a recipe by Chef Eric Léautey.

Ingredients for 4
4 endives
1 lemon cut into slices
1 carrot
20 cl veal stock
1 onion
Thyme
50 gr butter

• Wash, drain and chop the endives into 2 along the length, and remove the heart.
• Place them in a saucepan with the butter, the lemon slices, salt, thyme, and cover with water.
• Place a sheet of greaseproof paper with a hole cut in the centre over the top of the pan, and cook gently for 10 minutes.
• Cut the onion and carrots into small cubes. Brown in a frying pan with a little butter. Season with salt and pepper.
• Drain the endives, and place them with the onions and carrots in an oven dish.
• Add the veal stock.
• Braise in the oven with no lid on the dish for 30 minutes at 120° (mark 4).

Serve in the braising juices

Morello cherry chocolate tears

Chocolate, cherries, and more chocolate...

Preparation : 1 h 30

Ingredients for 22 chocolate tears

200 gr dark chocolate chopped into pieces

22 pitted and drained Morello cherries

Chocolate mousse

60 gr dark chocolate

1 tbsp single cream

1 egg yolk

1 egg white

1/2 tsp powdered gelatin

80 ml very cold single cream

• Cut 22 3cm by 11cm rectangles from oven-proof paper.
• Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, then off the heat, place a bowl containing the chocolate pieces into the hot water. Avoid the bowl touching the saucepan, and stir the chocolate as it melts.
• Spread a thin layer of chocolate onto a paper rectangle using a spatula. Press the two ends together to form a tear-shape, and hold together. Place on a plate to cool, and repeat th operation with the other rectangles. If the chocolate begins to harden, place it back in the bain-marie, but always off the heat.

• Place a small teaspoon of melted chocolate onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and place the chocolate tear on top, pressing gently. Repeat for each tear. Leave to harden completely, then trim each chocolate with a sharp knife.

• Delicately lift each chocolate from the paper with a spatula.

• Cut the morello cherries into two.
• Chocolate mousse filling : Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie as above. Add one spoon of single cream and the egg yolk, and mix well.
• Put the gelatin powder in 2 teaspoons of water in a bowl. Place this bowl in a bain-marie to dissolve the gelatin completely. Then add to the chocolate.
• Whip the cold cream with a whisk, and add then mix it into the chocolate mousse.
• Beat the egg white to snow, and fold it into the chocolate mousse.
• Place a cherry into each chocolate tear, and then cover with the chocolate mousse. Fill each chocolate to the very top, as the mousse will tend to settle.

Leave in the fridge for one hour before serving.

White Chocolate and coconut Panna Cotta mango purée

Inspired by this Panna Cotta recipe from Chef Scott feaured on Gordon Ramsey's "Hell's Kitchen" Fox TV series, I did reduce the sugar and gelatine a little...

Here's the video (recipe n° 8)

Preparation : 15 minutes

Refrigeration : 3 hours

Ingredients for 4 small glasses

25 cl coconut milk

100 gr grated white chocolate

2 gelatin leaves

50 gr sugar

1 mango

8 cl water

• Soften the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water.
• Bring the coconut milk and grated white chocolate to the boil in a small saucepan, stirring continuously.
• Off the heat, fully melt in the softened gelatin leaves (drained and dried).
• Filter the preparation with a chinois sieve.
• Fill the glasses to 2/3 rds with the mixture, and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.
• Mango Purée: Peel the mango, remove the stone, and chop into small cubes.
• Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan, and bring to the boil.
• Add the mango pieces and reduce to a jam-like consistency.
• Liquidize in a mixer, and leave to cool for 15 minutes.
• Add the mango puree to fill the glasses, and leav to cool for 2 hours before serving.

Salmon-trout crepinettes in Tarragon sauce

The dish comes from the l'Hostellerie La Bonne Marmite in Pont-Saint-Pierre.

Preparation : 30 minutes

Cooking time : 10 minutes

Ingredients for 4

1 small fillet of salmon-trout

1 fillet of white fish (for the stuffing)

1/2 courgette

1/2 red pepper

1/2 carrot

1 tbsp creme fraîche

1 peeled and chopped tomato

10 cl fish stock

1 egg

Chives

Tarragon

10 cl single cream

10 gr butter

Salt, pepper

• Chop the vegetables into small cubes.

• Brown the vegetables in butter, and add the chives.
• Reserve one spoonful of the vegetables to dress each plate.
• Remove the bones from the salmon fillet, and slice into very thin escalopes.
• Flatten the escalopes between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Season with salt and pepper. Reserve in the fridge.

• Stuffing : Chop the white fish fillet and mix with the creme fraiche, egg and pepper.
• Stir in the browned vegetables with a spatula.
• Crépinettes : Place a tablespoon of stuffing in the middle of each salmon escalope, and wrap into a parcel, sealing each crepinette individually in cooking film.
• Steam-cook the crepinettes for 3 to 4 minutes. Unwrap, and keep the crepinettes warm.
• Sauce (to prepare whilst the crepinettes are cooking) : Reduce the fish stock in a small saucepan.
• Add the single cream, and reduce again.
• At the last moment, add in the finely chopped tarragon and diced tomato.

Serve the crepinettes dressed in the sauce and decorated with browned vegatables. I accompany the dish with a timbale of rice, and pleurotte mushrooms browned in butter.