Turbotin Soufflé à la Reynière

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Flexible filleting knife
• •Sturdy kitchen shears
• •Food processor with chilled bowl and blade
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Narrow immersion-blender cup or small blender
• •Deep oval 3-quart (3-liter) covered baking dish
• •Small heavy saucepans
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Wide fish spatulas or two fish servers

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the Soubise

   Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the onion and a pinch of the salt, cover, and cook without coloring until completely soft, about 12 minutes. Stir in the rice and milk, cover again, and cook at the gentlest simmer until the rice yields beneath a spoon, 18 to 20 minutes. Blend with the 2 tablespoons cream until perfectly smooth, then press through a fine sieve. Measure ½ cup (120 ml / about 120 g) Soubise cullis and hold it covered. If it is too thick to pass, loosen it with a spoonful of milk; it should fall from the spoon in a slow ivory ribbon.

2. 2

   Prepare the mushrooms

   With a small paring knife, cut three or four shallow curved grooves across each mushroom cap, working from the rim toward the center. This is enough to keep the book's white grooved garnish without turning dinner into ornamental carving. Put the caps and stems in a small pan with ¾ cup water, the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon butter, ¼ teaspoon salt, and a pinch of white pepper. Cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes, then lift out the caps while they remain white and firm. Continue cooking the stems for 8 minutes, strain the liquor, and reserve exactly ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g).

3. 3

   Build white-wine sauce

   Put the shallot and white wine in a small saucepan and boil until only 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) remain. In another saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter, stir in the flour, and cook this pale roux for 2 minutes without allowing it to color. Gradually whisk in ¾ cup (180 ml / 180 g) fish fumet, then the ½ cup cream and the wine reduction. Simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes, whisking often, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Strain it and measure 1 cup (240 ml / about 240 g); reduce it if there is more, or loosen it with reserved fumet if there is less. Cover and keep barely warm.

4. 4

   Make cold mousseline

   Chill the processor bowl and blade for 15 minutes. Process the cold fish with 1¼ teaspoons salt and ¼ teaspoon white pepper until it becomes smooth and tacky, scraping the bowl twice. Add the cold egg white and process just until absorbed. Press the paste through a fine sieve, reserve 2 tablespoons as insurance, and return the rest to the chilled processor. With the motor pulsing, add the cold cream gradually until the mousseline is glossy, light, and firm enough to hold a soft peak. Poach a teaspoon in barely trembling water for 3 minutes and taste it for seasoning. If a wet, oily ring appears in the processor, stop immediately: chill everything for 10 minutes, process the reserved fish paste in the clean cold bowl, then feed the loose mousseline into it one spoonful at a time. Ça se rattrape.

   Cold is not a preference here. It is the structure. Set the processor bowl over ice between additions if the kitchen is warm.
5. 5

   Bone and fill

   If the fishmonger has not removed the backbone, lay the turbot on its pale belly with the dark side facing up. Make two long cuts, one on either side of the spine, from head to tail. Slide a flexible knife against the bones to release the two upper fillets, cut through the spine beside the head and tail with sturdy shears, then lift it carefully while freeing it from the two lower fillets. Leave the belly skin and outer shape intact. Pat the cavity dry, season it with ¾ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon white pepper, and spoon in enough fish mousseline forcemeat to restore a plump, rounded shape. Draw the released fillets over the filling without stretching them. Do not overpack; any extra mousseline can be poached separately as small quenelles.

6. 6

   Shallow-poach the turbotin

   Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a deep oval 3-quart (3-liter) baking dish generously with the softened butter. Turn the filled turbotin over so its pale belly faces upward and settle it into the dish. Warm 1 cup (240 ml / 240 g) fish fumet with the reserved ½ cup mushroom cooking liquor, preserving the book's 2:1 ratio, and pour it around the fish. Cover closely with buttered parchment and a tight lid or foil. Poach for 35 to 45 minutes, never allowing the liquid to boil hard, until the mousseline reaches 145°F (63°C), feels springy, and the thickest fish flakes under gentle pressure. Almost dry means à court mouillement, with only a short moistening, not boiling the dish until its liquor disappears.

   If the seam opens and a little mousseline swells through, leave it alone until cooking is finished. Trim the escaped portion neatly before transferring the fish; pushing hot forcemeat back inside only tears the fillets.
7. 7

   Poach pale garnish

   While the fish rests, bring the remaining water and ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g) reserved fumet to the barest tremble. If using milt, poach the pieces gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until firm and white throughout. If using scallop medallions, poach them for 45 to 60 seconds on each side, just until opaque and tender. Lift them out carefully and warm the mushroom caps in the same liquor for 30 seconds. Keep every element pale; browning belongs nowhere in this garnish.

8. 8

   Finish the sauce

   Transfer the turbotin carefully to a warmed oval platter and strain its poaching liquor into a saucepan. Boil the liquor down to ⅓ cup (80 ml / 80 g). Whisk in exactly 1 cup white-wine sauce and ½ cup Soubise cullis, keeping the book's two-thirds to one-third proportion, and simmer for 2 minutes. Taste for salt and white pepper. Take the pan off the heat and monter au beurre, mount the sauce with the cold diced butter, whisking a few pieces at a time until it gleams. If it is too thick, add reserved fumet by the spoonful. If it is thin, reduce it before adding the butter. Should the butter separate, move the pan off the heat and whisk in 1 teaspoon cold water until the sauce gathers again.

9. 9

   Dress and serve

   Lay the grooved white mushroom caps in a straight row down the center of the turbotin. Arrange the poached milt or scallop medallions around them in an oval, alternating each pale piece with a whole anchovy fillet exactly as the source directs. Pour the hot sauce into a warmed sauceboat and send it to the table separately, so each slice receives sauce as it is served. Cut across the fish with a fish server, taking fillet and swollen mousseline together. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Give the fishmonger precise instructions: remove the backbone through two cuts on the dark side, but leave the skin, head, and four fillets connected. A butterflied or fully filleted turbot cannot be closed around the mousseline in the same way.
• •This dish truly needs a whole small turbot. Brill is its closest cousin, but a pile of halibut fillets loses the structure the method is meant to teach.
• •Fish milt has a delicate marine richness and a softer texture than scallop. The substitution is not invisible. Scallop is sweeter, but it preserves the pale alternating garnish and tolerates the same gentle poach.
• •Use a clean, unsmoked fish fumet with little salt. The cooking liquor is reduced into the finished sauce, so an aggressive commercial stock becomes harsher and saltier with every minute.
• •Keep the final ratio exact: two measures white-wine sauce to one measure Soubise cullis, then add the reduced poaching liquor. The onion should round the wine sauce, not bury the turbot.
• •Pour a taut dry white with enough acidity for the cream, such as Chablis or another unoaked Chardonnay. The anchovy garnish already supplies salt, so taste the sauce only after the full plate is assembled.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the Soubise cullis and white-wine sauce up to one day ahead. Chill them separately, then reheat over gentle heat while the turbotin poaches.
• •The fishmonger can bone the turbot one day ahead. Keep it well wrapped over ice in the coldest part of the refrigerator.
• •The mousseline can be made and the turbotin filled up to 4 hours before poaching. Keep it covered and thoroughly chilled; never let the cream-bound filling wait at room temperature.
• •The mushrooms may be grooved and cooked up to 3 hours ahead. Keep their caps covered with a little cooking liquor so they remain moist and white.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 550g)