Intermediate Lesson 27- Salt Crusted Fish
Today we made one of the more interesting dishes in Intermediate- Sea bass in a salt crust, served with a vegetable tart.
The sea bass strikes again! To protect humanity from the ill-tempered fish, the French decided to wrap them in a tough salt crust made of coarse sea salt, flour and herbs. The result was an amazing-looking fish mummy wrapped in a very salty dough. The best part? We didn't have to scale the fish! Still need to gut it with our bare fingers though.
Wow! There's a whole fish in this crust.
You put the entire crusted fish in the oven for 25 minutes or more to ensure that it is well cooked. Some of my classmates burnt their crusts, but luckily the fish still came out well. I guess that's what the crust is there for.
In a restaurant, the entire crusted fish would be wheeled to the diner, and the waiter will fillet the fish in front of the diner. It's so tough that one would have to saw through the dough with a serrated knife. Like this:
Opening the crust like a casket.
The scale and skin stick to the dough and come off naturally.
The waiter would then serve the fish to the client with a beurre blanc sauce, along with the vegetable tart. My tart was a bit burnt. Sorry....
Boom!
That was pretty awesome. I was pretty bummed that my tart was burnt since I'm usually proud of my tart-making skills. But that was that. The flavoring was fantastic though.
Now before we end, I'd like to announce something new to the blog. But first, some context.
Cordon Bleu provides students with standard issued forks and knives to use. We have a nifty pocket on our left arm to carry these around and look professional. Well the non-conformist in me decided to carry chopsticks as well- a nod to my humble Chinese roots. Some of my classmates noticed that I've been eating everything from the demonstration with my chopsticks. It's true, I use them to eat meat, fish, flan, pies, cakes, even soups, mainly because I'm too lazy to wash another utensil afterwards. Apparently, people think that's hilarious. So today, I am happy to announce the latest series in my blog:
Can He EAt That with Chopsticks (CHEAT-CHOP)?!
Cue the "Will it Blend" theme song please.
Yes I always carry my bamboo chopsticks
Today our dessert is caramel ice-cream, which the chef kindly showed us how to do even though we weren't going to make it in practical. Caramel ice-cream is prepared a bit different from standard ice-cream. It's not made with a crème anglaise and so it's softer than usual. Most people would elect to use a spoon for this dish, but Can He Eat That with Chopsticks? That is the question:
Photo evidence, with Gulnazi Photo-bombing
She's eating with Chopsticks too!
A little bit of melting ice-cream is nothing to sweat about! Stay tune for more episodes of....
Can He EAt That with Chopsticks (CHEAT-CHOP)?!
Student 1: Hey do we need to salt the fish before we fold in the salt crust?
Student 2: Dude.... you're wrapping the entire fish with a thick salt crust, what do you think?
Me: Chef, why is the appetizer called a Fantasy of Two Salmon? What kind of fantasy is it?
Demo Chef Caals: I didn't come up with that name. The chef who created this dish thought it would be a fantasy if he mixed smoked salmon with fresh salmon, and then serve it with a tropical salad. You know, because cuisine chefs are such poets. I don't know how that is a fantasy...
