My aunt gave me some cookbooks for Christmas this year and I was told I had to cook a meal. She wanted an appetizer, entree and dessert. So I picked a few things out and decided to give it a shot. The dessert did not come out like I wanted, but it still tasted good. When it comes down to it, it's all about flavor anyway.
I also grossly underestimated how much fish I would need, so the meal was quite light, and I actually only had a small piece of the halibut and one or two scallops. However, I think most of the fun is to cook for someone else even if you don't eat the meal yourself.
The first thing I made was some Scallops in Prosciutto with Monk fish. Monk fish is known has the poor man's lobster. I find lobster to be rubbery and tasteless. Everyone seems to go crazy over lobster, but my guess is that if you dip any fish in 50 pounds of butter you will go nuts over that as well. Needless to say Monk fish is very similar to lobster, but I found it to be more flaky and more flavorful than lobster. I also slightly overcooked the fish, mainly because not all the pieces were consistent in size, and I could see some of the albumin, which is really just unsightly. Most of the the ones I cook came out pretty good.
One of the best advice I can give to someone is to cut the scallops in half. Most scallops are overcooked and rubbery and gross. They should melt in your mouth. If you cut them in half you can cook them faster about a min on each side for medium sized scallops in a pan with olive oil. If you don't cut them in half you want to make it so that it is almost raw in the center and let them sit for 2-3 mins, that way the center will cook through on it's own and you don't end up with a rubbery scallop.
One of the best advice I can give to someone is to cut the scallops in half. Most scallops are overcooked and rubbery and gross. They should melt in your mouth. If you cut them in half you can cook them faster about a min on each side for medium sized scallops in a pan with olive oil. If you don't cut them in half you want to make it so that it is almost raw in the center and let them sit for 2-3 mins, that way the center will cook through on it's own and you don't end up with a rubbery scallop.
The pictures are from my cellphone. Basically you just get some scallops, cut them in half and cut the prosciutto in half length wise. Wrap the scallop with the prosciutto, and cut up the monk fish into small cubes (Brunoise). Place them onto a baking sheet and place some sprigs of rosemary and drizzle with olive oil and put into a 400 F oven for about 5 mins.
Confit just means to poach in the fat or oil. A lot of recipes with duck are confit of duck, using the duck fat to cook the duck. For this I just confit the rest of the monk fish I had and some of the halibut. I wouldn't recommend doing the confit of monk fish, because it cooks up and looks much like lobster and wasn't that good. The confit of Halibut flaked up nicely after 10 mins and was very good.
Basically put some sea salt on the fillets. It would be good to let it stand for 30 minutes, and soak for 20 minutes then drain and pat dry. My aunt was probably pretty hungry since I was taking a long time with this, and I also didn't have enough fish for everyone. I didn't expect my younger sister to come in and steal some of the food. No one really likes her that much anyway, and I figured we might as well feed her something other than fish heads for dinner since it is the holidays.
This is two pieces of Halibut and one piece of the monk fish with some mousseline sauce drizzled over it.
For the fish heat up about 2 cups of olive oil in a pan, but it doesn't have to be as hot as if you were frying. About 122F or hot enough to put your finger in it and not burn your finger. After 10 minutes pull it out with a slotted spoon. You should see it start to flake when you take it out.
For the mousseline sauce, whip 1/2 cup of heavy cream til it forms soft peaks, then fold in half a cup of mayo and 3 tbsp of lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
The apple pie was a disaster. I got the recipe from his 3 star chef book. It was the simplest of the recipes and I was ill-equipped for the task. I needed a certain pan, which I just didn't have. It was basically cut up apples with caramel sauce. The crust on top is puff pastry placed on top, and was baked at 400F for 15 mins and then 350 F for 15 minutes. You then tip the pie over so that the top crust is now the bottom. Let's just say that I won't be flipping pies again for a while. Hence, no pictures. I did scrap it together and put some ice cream on the top. So it tasted okay, it just looked like apple slop.
