Essential Skills 3 - Fish

I was late for school today. I know I'm old enough to know better, but it really was because of daylight savings times. I want my hour of sleep back and no, I did not go to bed early to compensate. My "do as I say not as I do" motto that I used on my kids caught up with me this morning. It doesn't help that time accelerates on weekends.

More fish. I'm becoming a monger.

We began our morning by preparing a braised shark with Lemon Pesto.
I wasn't a big shark fan until this morning. We lightly seared it then setting it aside while creating a pan sauce in which to braise this full bodied white fish in for it's final cooking, we added onion, red pepper, tomato and wine along with some herbs then plopped the shark back in the pan and finished it off in the oven, covered. Served with a light lemon pesto sauce on top, it was flavorful, moist and firm.

Next we grilled up up a Acapulco Cat Fish. Farm raised since wild cat fish are pretty hard to come by these days, it is a white firm fish that that is moist and well suited for grilling. We encrusted it with a spice rub of toasted cumin, oregano. garlic, Chile powder, pepper and cayenne. Chef had made up a nice creole sauce that we garnished it with.
I decided that cat fish wasn't so bad either! Mom, can you believe I'm becoming a fish lover??

Finally, we were given a whole flounder (sole) that we gutted, cleaned and filleted. I'm starting to feel like a surgeon. This boning and filleting is getting easier each day. I think I might even be tempted to start buying my fish whole. Maybe.
Anyways, I managed to get my four fillets from this "flat fish" then rolled them up and baked them over sauteed mushrooms and wine, covered with a piece of parchment. Very delicate, these "Fillets Bonne Femme" cooked quite fast. I made a pan sauce using a fish veloute with the pan juices and voila - Fillets of Sole Bonne Femme.
I left quite happy to add a few more recipes to my limited poisson repertoire.
And I'm learning French. Kitchen French that is.

Bon Soir