Trout fillet steamed on a slice
of cereal bread, Brussels sprouts, herbs, seeds
Jean Sulpice
(remember this name, a rising star) is a young chef whose restaurant is
beautifully located on the Annecy lake in the French Alps. The youngest chef to
get a 1 Michelin stars (at the age of 26), the youngest chef to get 2 Michelin
stars (31), trained by, among others, 3-star chef Marc Veyrat, he follows the
principles of the latter, using wild plants and herbs that he collects himself
in the surrounding mountains and working in a very close collaboration with his
local suppliers. Local and seasonal!
I
borrowed today one of his technique: cooking, or exactly, steaming a fresh
water fish fillet on a slice of bread. For his recipe, Sulpice uses a local
lake fish, the féra, an endemic freshwater whitefish. He cooks the fish on a
stone heated by a woodfire, under a smoking dome. But the great originality of
his recipe is that the fish is cooked a bread slice. Not served, or not only
served, but steamed on a piece of bread. And this makes a great difference and
I should admit that, although I was obviously teased by this technique, I was
not sure of what to expect. And this is sublime. First of all, it is important
to use a big loaf of bread, in which it is possible to cut several slices
matching the size of the fillet. Secondly, the bread should be a good quality
bread, such as a tasty country bread or a cereal bread that retains a lot of
humidity and that will transfer its taste and its humidity to the fish. The
third point is to butter the bread. Sulpice just butters the top on which he
places the fish (flesh side) so that the butter enhances all the flavors at
stake. I also butter the bottom, allowing the bread to grill and bringing a
nice crispy texture. As I didn’t have smoking dome, big stone and a (practical)
wood fire, I simply make it in a large pan, with the lid of my tagine dish, but
a simple alloy foil will do the job too(I tested it). Here is the recipe.
You will not see your bread the same way.
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Levels of difficulty
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Cost
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Preparation time
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Cooking time
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n
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$$
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15 minutes
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15 minutes
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Ingredients - 4 servings
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Instructions
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§ 4 filets of rainbow
trout, non-skinned (or salmon, walleye, or any fresh water or anadromous fish
although nothing prevents from using pure sea fish…)
§ 4 slices of good
quality country or cereal bread (here sesame, sunflower seed and other bread)
§ 1 lb. of Brussels
sprouts
§ 1 handful of pine
nuts (or other nuts)
§ 1 handful of
sunflower seeds (or other seeds)
§ 4 pinches of
fennel seeds (for instance)
§ 2 handfuls of parsley
(or another herb)
§ A few celery
greens, fennel feather greens (or other greens) for taste and decoration
§ 1 cup of heavy
cream
§ Butter
§ Pink pepper corns
§ S&P
And a cast iron pan,
a plancha… or a stone, with a smoking dome, a tagine lead or simply an alloy
foil
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1.
The fish
§ Preheat a large cast
iron frying pan, on low medium (burner on #3)
§ Butter each side
of the bread slices, generously on the top side, more parsimoniously on the
bottom side
§ Place the fennel
seeds, a couple of celery leaves, fennel greens and parsley leaves on the
buttered top
§ Salt (moderately
if you use salted butter… my case!)
and pepper the flesh side of the fish
§ Place the fish
fillet on the bread, skin side up
§ Place the bread
and the fish on the pan
§ Add a few herbs and
seeds here and there in the pan
§ Cover the pan with
a dome or an alloy foil
§ Count around 10
minute cooking but check regular. I find personally that the best way to know
when it is cooked is when… you can start to remove the skin easily with a
knife
2.
Serving
§ I serve the fillet
with blanched Brussels sprouts quarter (4 minutes in salted boiling water,
cooled down in iced water, then rapidly heated up in the pan where the fish
was cooked)
§ I also made a
parsley coulis with the parsley and the heavy cream
§ With toasted pine
nuts and sunflower seeds to match with the bread, and a few pink pepper corns…
§ and a glass of
Alsace’s Riesling, but a Savoy’s Apremont would be great with it to if you
find one…
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