Filets de Soles Mimi

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch (30 cm) wide sauté pan with lid or parchment cover
• •3-quart (2.8 L) saucepan for the lobster
• •5-quart (4.7 L) pot for the spaghetti
• •Small food processor or mortar and pestle
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Lobster picks and crackers
• •Large oval heatproof serving platter
• •Small warmed sauceboat
• •Slotted fish spatula

Instructions

1. 1

   Arrange the sequence

   Set the oven to 170°F (75°C). Warm a large oval platter, four dinner plates, and a sauceboat for about 10 minutes, then turn off the oven. Put a large pot of water on for the spaghetti. Measure every sauce ingredient, cut the truffle into julienne, meaning short, fine matchsticks, and set a wide lidded sauté pan aside for the sole. The order from here is lobster, sauce, spaghetti, sole, assembly. Once the sole meets the Chablis, the table waits for you, not the other way around.

   For safety and clean shell halves, ask the fishmonger to dispatch and split the lobster immediately before you collect it. The preparation still begins with a fresh lobster, but the difficult knife work need not happen in a crowded home kitchen.
2. 2

   Start the lobster

   Remove and discard the lobster’s stomach sac, feathery gills, and intestinal vein without damaging the two shell halves. Heat the olive oil with 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of the butter in a broad saucepan over medium-high heat. Lay in the lobster halves cut-side down with the claws and cook until the flesh lightly colors and the shells turn vivid red, about 3 minutes. Turn the pieces, add the carrot and shallots, and cook for 3 minutes more, stirring around the shells.

3. 3

   Cook à l’américaine

   Add the garlic and tomato paste, stirring until the paste darkens slightly, then add the chopped tomato. Take the pan completely off the heat before pouring in the Cognac. Return it to the burner and boil for 1 minute without flaming it. Add ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of the Chablis, the fish stock, bouquet garni, cayenne, and a small pinch each of salt and white pepper. Cover and simmer gently until the lobster tail is opaque and springy, about 8 minutes. Remove the tail halves and claws as soon as they are cooked; leave the sauce at a calm simmer.

4. 4

   Prepare the lobster

   When the lobster is cool enough to handle, remove each tail half in one piece and cut the meat crosswise into 8 thin medallions. Cover them with buttered parchment and hold them over barely warm water. Pick every scrap of meat from the claws, knuckles, and body cavities, keeping the two large shell halves whole for serving. Pulse this meat with 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) of the cream until smooth, then press it through a fine-mesh sieve. If the purée is too stiff to pass, work in 1 teaspoon of the warm lobster cooking liquid. The processor replaces the pounding, but the sieve stays because its silkiness belongs to the dish.

5. 5

   Reduce the sauce

   Simmer the lobster cooking liquid uncovered until reduced to about ¾ cup (180 ml), then strain it into a clean saucepan, pressing gently on the vegetables without forcing pulp through. Add ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of the cream and simmer gently until the sauce américaine coats the back of a spoon yet still pours freely. Taste for salt and white pepper. Keep it warm over the lowest heat. If it turns oily or begins to separate, remove it from the burner and whisk in 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) of cold cream. Ça se rattrape. Never let the finished sauce boil hard.

6. 6

   Cream the spaghetti

   Salt the boiling water with 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g) of the measured salt. Cook the spaghetti until tender but still resilient, then reserve ½ cup (120 ml) of its water and drain. Return the spaghetti to its saucepan with 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of butter and ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) of cream. Fold in the sieved lobster purée over low heat until every strand is coated and the garnish looks creamy rather than wet. If it tightens before assembly, loosen it with the reserved pasta water one spoonful at a time. Cover and hold over barely warm water for no longer than 10 minutes.

7. 7

   Poach the sole

   Dry the sole fillets and season them lightly with the remaining salt and white pepper. Fold each fillet into three, tucking the thin tail end inside so the packets cook evenly. Coat the wide sauté pan with the remaining 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g) of butter and arrange the fillets in one snug layer. Add the remaining 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) Chablis and cover with buttered parchment or a close-fitting lid. Bring the liquid only to a bare tremble and poach for 4 to 6 minutes, until the fillets are opaque, supple, and separate in moist flakes when pressed. If the wine begins to boil, lift the pan from the heat for 30 seconds, then return it to the lowest burner. A hard boil curls and toughens the fish; caught quickly, ça se rattrape.

8. 8

   Build the platter

   Set the two emptied lobster shell halves back-to-back on the warmed oval platter, stabilizing them with a tightly folded clean white napkin tucked underneath. Fill both shells to the brim with the creamed spaghetti and lobster purée. Lift the sole from its poaching liquid with a slotted spatula, drain it briefly, and arrange four folded fillets over each shell. Alternate the warm lobster medallions with the sole so every pair of fillets is separated by lobster.

9. 9

   Finish and serve

   Scatter the short, fine julienne of black truffle across the sole and lobster. Pour the sauce américaine into the warmed sauceboat and send it to the table separately, exactly as the dish requires. Carry the platter out at once, while the fish still gleams with butter and the sauce pours in a smooth ribbon. No lingering over arrangement now. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose narrow, even sole fillets from fish weighing roughly alike. Uneven fillets force you to choose between a dry small piece and an underdone large one; consistent thickness matters more than grandeur.
• •Fresh black truffle is magnificent in season, but a whole preserved black truffle is the classical pantry’s honest answer when fresh specimens are pale or tired. Use the truffle itself, never perfumed oil; the short black julienne is visible as well as fragrant.
• •Cook with a dry, clean Chablis rather than an expensive bottle. The recipe takes 1½ cups (360 ml), so open a second bottle if four people will drink it at dinner. Its mineral edge is the right companion for the cream, lobster, and sole.
• •Leftovers lose the composed platter’s charm but remain good food. Chill fish, pasta, and sauce separately within 2 hours, eat them the following day, and reheat very gently with a spoonful of cream. Never boil the sauce or the sole.

Advance Preparation

• •Up to 4 hours ahead, cook the lobster, extract and slice the tail, make the sieved lobster purée, reduce the sauce before adding its final cream, and clean the shell halves. Chill every component promptly and separately. Reheat the sauce gently, then finish it with cream shortly before serving.
• •The vegetables may be diced and the truffle cut into julienne up to 3 hours ahead. Keep the truffle tightly covered so its perfume stays in the garnish rather than escaping into the refrigerator.
• •Do not cook the spaghetti or poach the sole ahead. Allow an uninterrupted final 20 minutes for those two preparations and the assembly; this is the part of the dish that cannot wait.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)