FILLET OF HAKE WITH MANILA CLAMS, RIVIERA-STYLE

I'm happy because I'll be back on the line cooking tonight instead of tracking orders. I'm not terribly familiar with Hake so I'm interested in tonight's dish and actually filleting the fish. I tasted it when another group made it and it was tasty, sweeter than I expected because of strips of sun-dried tomatoes.

More after class on the jump...

DISH: Fillet Of Hake With Manila Clams, Riviera Style (Nice), Filet De Merlou Aux Palourdes Riviera

RECIPE:
Sauce And Garnish
40 ML Blended Olive Oil
100 G Sundried Tomatoes
100 G Niçoise Olives, pitted
25 G Scallion Greens, émincés (thinly sliced) on the diagonal
24 Manila Clams
125 ML Extra Virgin Olive Oil
115 G Butter, diced
125 ML Lemon Juice
Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
*Sundried Tomatoes, Julienned (thinly sliced but long)
*Snow Peas (Cooked in salted water & sauteed for service)
* Red Bliss Potatoes (Cut in small semi-circles with melon-scooper, skin left on one side)

Fish
8 portions hake fillet, 100 G/each, skin on and scaled
40 ML Blended Olive Oil

Procedure:
SAUCE AND GARNISH Warm the 40 ML olive oil in a small sautoir. Add the 100 G sundried tomatoes, 100 G pitted niçoise olives, and 25 G émincés scallions (thinly sliced) and sweat until they soften. Set aside and keep warm. Steam 24 Manila clams open with 60 ML water. Remove them to a bowl using a skimmer, cover and keep warm. Strain and filter the clam juice into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Whisk in the oil and 115 G diced butter pieces and emulsify. Stire in the 125 ML lemon juice and season to taste. Keep warm.

FOR THE FISH To order, season a fillet with salt and pepper on the flesh side and pepper with just a touch of salt on the skin side. Heat some of the oil in a small sauteuse over medium-high heat and sear the fillet on the skin side, pressing gently on it with a spatula for about 30 seconds to keep it flat. Reduce the heat and continue to cook the fillet until it is almost cooked through. Flip it over and cook just long enough to remove any rawness. Blot on paper towels. Place the fillet to one side on a warm dinner plate and flank with 3 reheated clams. Scatter some of the garnish over the clams and nap with the sauce.

BREAKDOWN: I misplaced the notecard on which I wrote down the number of times we muliplied the ingredients for restaurant service, my apologies. The significant additions were thinly sliced sundried tomatoes, snow peas under the fish and then thinly sliced again as garnish with the tomatoes around the fish, and melon-ball scooped red bliss potatoes cooked til tender in salted water and sauteed for service.

I long ago learned the error of my ways regarding fish and cream sauce but just in case you missed my protestations or missed my acquiesence, here it is: fish with cream sauce can be mighty tasty.

In this case, picture the crisp outside of the fish and a velvety cream sauce, tanged slightly with citrus, the acid from some barely sauteed grape tomatoes and a little sweetness from the slivers of sundried tomatoes...delicious. That said, I maintain that the cream sauces that aren't based in fish fumets are better (or if they are, they're better ameliorated with another stock, like veal).

It got a little hectic on the line. We were ALL a little short on patience with this dish. We started out fine but then had a breakdown while plating about a quarter of the way through. Whether it was forgetting to sauce the plate before placing the clams or having trouble picking the snow peas out of the pan filled with thinly sliced snow peas, olives, potatoes and sundried tomatoes. A fork doesn't work so well but the fish spatula kills the potatoes. The solution we figured out with three plates left to make?

Cook the snow peas in a separate pan. I swear, sometimes things just make so much sense, they're so simple, you just can't see them.