Trout recipe updated from Toulouse Lautrec, thru Ace, to .....

[katace]

Hi epicures! I'm just a home cook, but am an artist and like to de-stress in my kitchen. Recently, I have been making or updating and making, and then riffing off of recipes by the great artist Toulouse Lautrec published as "The Art of Cuisine". He loved to cook for his art friends and then wrote down his recipes in the style of the day - late 1800s. 

 

This is a dish I've been trying to 'get good'. I'll put in his, then mine. He does not use any measurements (as in modern measurements), usually no cooking times and often other information. So, as another artist (painter) I don't cook that way either (tho I AM trying to learn how to bake and will make my second attempt at Mondrian cake this week and in that measurements count).

 

Lautrec recipe: 

 

Take a dozen trout freshly caught, empty them through the gills, wash and dry them carefully. Stuff the inside of the trout with peppercorns, four cloves and some coarse salt.

 

Arrange the trout in an earthenware terrine which can go into the oven, and moisten to the height of the fish with good wine vinegar and a glass of good white wine. 

 

Let them simmer for about twenty minutes; leave the trout in the terrine, bathed in their court bouillon, and take the whole thing to a cool cellar to preserve for at least a month in the sumer and two months in the winter.

 

When you are about to serve, let the trout drain and arrange them on a dish surrounded by rounds of lemon and curled parsley. Each guest should garnish his trout with some good olive oil worked with a pinch of chervil and of finely chopped parsley. 

 

This recipe can be used for herring, mackerel, and weever fish, freshly caught. 

 

 

 

Now for my riff off recipe (this is a work in progress so any comments or suggestions will be so appreciated):

 

take cleaned trout and debone them, cut fins off and heads and tails and cut each trout into two fillets with the skin on.

 

Put the halves of the fish into a wide and deep pan and cover with a mix of champaign vinegar and a nice white pinot. Put in some peppercorns and whole cloves and a bitter/mineral salt. Put the heads and tails in too. Simmer for 15 minutes then take the heads and tails out and put in ~1C duck fat. Keep on a very low flame for another 5 minutes until the duck fat has melted. Cover and cool. The duck fat will form a seal.

 

Keep in the frig (or a cool place) for several days.

 

Thinly slice some red onion and marinate for at least 5 hours in a little oil and vinegar. Drain. Grate some fresh horseradish root and a bit of garlic into some buttermilk. Let it infuse then strain. Mix horseradish garlic buttermilk with some sour cream to make a nice consistency. add pink salt to taste. 

 

Shave some fennel and celery. Chop some watercress. Cut some nice small rounds from a few steamed red potatoes. Add softened red onion.  Let them sit in some of the horseradish dressing, then drain that. 

 

To serve, put the bitter salad out with a bit of the dressing. Lay a piece of the trout onto a pan skin side up, pat dry the skin,  and then torch the skin to crisp it. then lay that on the plate too. Finish with a tiny sprinkle of the bitter/mineral salt and a bit of the horseradish sauce on top of the crispy fish. Maybe a fennel frond would look nice. Serve with fresh infused vodka in ice cold tiny glasses.

[katace]

I'm preparing for an 'artists' dinner with friends who are artists, made by and artist (me) riffing off of an artist's recipes (lautrec), and I started preparing for it tonite.

 

Made the trout and set out to cure. Salt brined then rinsed and dried and slightly froze a 3" thick bone inch bone in rib eye steak and made the first loaf of Mondrian cake (which is yummm). http://www.mindfood.com/recipe/mondrian-cake/ I made this once before but did not have this detailed recipe and sort of winged it with a simple pound cake and no proper kitchen baking pans etc (formed them with tin foil), and figured out the construction method myself without any kitchen aids. And I made the mistake of letting it sit out during dinner so that it got too warm and started to look like an Oldenburg version of Mondrian. But this time I want it to look even better than the SF version (if that is possible - I have an idea how to do that) Ha, dreams.  

 

Start to sous vide the steak tomorrow (packed it tonite after salt brining and then rinsing and then patting it dry, and freezing it for an hour - dry in my freezer, not re-salting it and vacuum packing it with a stick of unsalted butter) for at least 72 hours and start other parts of the dinner (planned for this Saturday) in the next few days. Will set the table formal-- I mean formally (ref: game of thrones). Am making chicken consomme (already made the stock which is good tasting) and one diner is vegetarian so I'm practicing some nice recipes that will go with my intended flavor profiles (tomato consomme for example) but do not look like 'meat substitute' looking dishes (because if I was vegetarian, again, I would really not like eating a dish that simply 'looks' like a meat substitute-- and I want the meat eaters to rather envy her specially made dishes, heh)  I ordered a new book on the philosophy and history of cooking, and one on creative presentation of dishes. And yet another on flavor profiles. 

 

Over all I spend a lot of $$ on a dinner like this, BUT I spend way LESS than if I paid for myself only at a very expensive restaurant for one meal. I do that maybe only once every two years in NYC and PDX and LA.  Plus this is way more fun for me as a new cook. The dinner, plus wine and vodka and a $56 port will cost me around $4-500, which for 8 is very reasonable for this food and for this amount of effort. That is only $50-60 per person. Here is my menu:

 

1st course, cheese course, with cocktails. Ha, the cheese course is at the beginning.

2nd course, at the table, consomme (chicken for the meat eaters, tomato for the veg) served with a champaign (sweet savory tastes).  

3rd course, fish course-  the trout or a tempeh cake served on a bitter horseradish salad served with a fresh horseradish infused vodka ( just a tiny bit) (bitter cleansing tastes) 

4th course, entree: steak; savory tart (bacon cream Laurtrec inspired recipe); a duck confit recipe I am currently trying to work on (order the duck online), but I have my ideas; brussels sprouts recipe (tried this out at T-giving and it was nice; English Salad, inspired by a Lautrec recipe; served with a Chilean Syrah (Kingston Family) and/or a Woodward vineyards 2012 'Artist series' (My painting is on the label of their 'sleeping beauty' which is the title of that painting they bought). (this vintage has just been released see here: https://www.woodwardcanyon.com/drink-hold/) And maybe "Abstract" 2013. (rich meaty tastes and extremely balanced tastes and nose.) 

5th course, 'Nuns Fritters' From Lautrec which is a kind of deep fat fried fritter. Served with a nice golden port. (mildly sweet tastes - mostly fat tastes) 

6th course Mondrian cake served with decaf coffee. ( vanilla sweet tastes since I infuse the cane sugar with vanilla beans (ordered online) for about at least a month before) 

 

Lots of cooking .... lots of de-stressing in my kitchen!! Any comments, critiques would be so welcomed!!  

Edited December 2, 2014 by katace (log)