FISH STATION: FLOUNDER, EGGPLANT & TOMATO

From Meat (Saucier) to Fish (Poissonier) and new recipes, all three of which I've tasted and found quite appealing, especially the Monday and Wednesday dishes. Tonight we'll be making a sauteed flounder with eggplant. The whole crew should be back together again.

More after class on the jump...

DISH: Sauteed Fillet of Flounder With Eggplant And Tomato Compote (Provence), Filet De Limande Doré Aux Aubergines, Compote De Tomates

RECIPE:
Tomato Compote
1 Garlic Clove, smashed
50 G Shallots
20 G Butter
500 G Tomatoes, emondées, seeded & chopped
Bouquet Garni
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Eggplant Slices
600 G Medium-size Eggplant
100 ML Blended Olive Oil
5 G Fresh Thyme Leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Fillets and Service
4 Whole Flounder, ~500 G/each, filleted & skinned
150 G Flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper
100 G Butter, for sautéing, preferably clarified
100 G Butter, for beurre noisette
Juice of 2 Lemons
3 Tablespoons Chopped Flat-leaf Parsley
Fresh Chervil

Procedure:
COMPOTE Sweat smashed garlic clove and 50 G shallots in 20 G butter until tender and add 500 G tomatoes (emondées, seeded & chopped). Add bouquet garni and cook until excess water evaporates. Taste and adjust seasoning.

EGGPLANT Preheat oven to 350°F. Peel eggplants and slice them into rondelles about ¼ inch thick. Brush a sheet pan with olive oil and place eggplant slices on it. Brush each of the slices with olive oil and sprinkle with chopped thyme leaves and salt and pepper. Bake slices for about 15 minutes. After 5 minutes of cooking, brush slices a second time with olive oil. Once baked, the sheet pan of eggplant slices can be covered with aluminum foil and kept warm for service.

FILLETS Season and flour the flounder fillets and cook in butter until browned then transfer to a hot plate. Discard butter from the pan. Cool pans briefly and add new whole butter. Heat the butter gently to the noisette stage. Let the pan cool for a few seconds and add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt; the butter will become foamy.* Spread the bottom of the hot plates with a ring of tomato compote and a flounder fillet on top of the eggplant. Pour the beurre noisette over the fillets of flounder and sprinkle on the chopped parsley and garnish with chervil.

*We added a ladle of brown veal stock and stirred it in off the heat.

BREAKDOWN: So we didn't use flounder. Sole was subsituted and unfortunately for us it was already filleted when we got it (no fish filleting practice).

We replaced the eggplant slices with "eggplant caviar." To make the caviar, we preheated an oven to 350°F then sliced eggplants in half and scored the inside both ways. They went into a hotel pan with about a half inch of water at the bottom, the eggplant halves were then brushed with olive oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin and chopped thyme. Then they went into the preheated oven to steam for about 45 minutes. The eggplants were removed to a colander and scraped. We threw away the skins, added some sweated garlic and onion, seasoned it with salt, pepper and some more cumin and held it for service.

We served the dish with fingerling potatoes and potato cocottes, risolée (cooked a l'anglaise in a pot of salted water, then in oil on the stovetop and finally in butter in the oven),sautéed grape tomatoes and fava beans which Chef D. snagged from Level Four's stash of leftovers from the day students' lunch service.

We used pastry rings to shape the tomato compote and eggplant caviar which we plated one in front of the other, traffic-light style. The potatoes flayed out to the left, a fingerling potato on either side of a cocotte. Three grape tomatoes lined the bottom of the plate with a fava bean between each.

*We also changed the sauce, adding a ladle of brown veal stock and stirring it in off the heat.

Overall it was a decent dish. The veal stock sweetened the lemon butter noisette making it a little more interesting. A dish to have for the rotation but not anything that will change your life.

But what happened before class might change mine. I visited with Sara Wolf in career services to go over my resume and to get some leads on paying jobs. Many students end up taking internships where they're not paid for the first 200-400 hours of work. I can't afford to work for free and I'm a big boy and don't think I should have to. I do need a gig though and I need one fairly soon.

Sara gave me leads on the following restaurants: Craftsteak, The Modern, The Harrison, Pearl Oyster Bar and Craftbar.

It's not a bad group of restaurants, name-recognition-wise. So far, I've only been to Pearl. I like the food there but was disappointed by their limited oyster selection and the expensive prices for somewhat small dishes. Craftsteak (despite the bad reviews) and Pearl might be the best places for me to start. The Modern might be too industrial production, mass-assembly-line. I'll be making a DC food road-trip this weekend so I'm not sending out the resume til Sunday. Next week is the end of the gravy train, baby! Hopefully I'll be able to trail at a restaurant next week. Then back to work!