[cape chef]

Last Wednesday I prepared a dish with my class from Michel Bras.
It was his olive poached monkfish with mustard greens.

It was very easy and quite beautiful and flavorsome.

On Tuesday night I oven dried 1# of black Greek olives at 175 degree’s.
These olives would eventually become part of the garnish.

The recipe is
2/3 cup oil cured olives
2/3 cup olive oil
(For cooking)
½ cup oil cured olives
¼ cup olive oil
(Sauce)

1# monk fish cleaned and blood line removed

Mustard greens washed and trimmed
Butter
Mustard seeds

You puree both your olive and oils and set aside the latter for the finished plate.
You then add the first oil to a pan and gently heat, add the monk fish and constantly baste it with the oil, turning the fish over every couple of minutes. The outside of the fish become black. The fish will take about 8/10 minutes to cook.

When done, gently sauté your mustard greens in whole butter and season with S&P
Chop your Greek olives very fine and cut a couple chive sticks.

On your plate, place a few pools of the second oil and take your fish to a board and cut about two inch medallions, the pearl white flesh against the black exterior is beautiful.
Stand the fish on the plate, place your mustard greens on the plate and dust with the seeds, olives and chive sticks.

I found the flavors a play on bitter/sweet. Bitter from the greens and sweet from the monkfish. The texture of the oil and olives was sensual and light.

 

[anneke]

That sounds awesome... I love Michel Bras; I have his book but definitely don't use it enough. He's a real pioneer.

Monkfish in France is unbelievable. You never see the great big ones infested with parasites that you see in North America. They use younger more tender fish, which has a more delicate flavour and tastes of the sea. They often leave the very thin inner skin around the fish so it holds its shape better during cooking. When the fish is young, it's thin enough to chew through.

Thanks CC; you made me want to go to Aubrac...