Whiting with Zucchini Julienne
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 30 min.
Merlan avec Julienne des Courgettes, a light dish, easy to prepare. You can use any white, firm fleshed fish fillet. For the julienne, also called a "matchstick", you need to cut vegetables in long thin strips. It's a technique used by professionals to enhance the presentation.
Ingredients:
- 4 medium zucchinis (long) about 125 gr (4 oz) each, cut into 3 inches (8-10 cm) long stripes
- 60gr (2 oz) shallots cut into thin slivers
- 4 tbsp (50gr) butter
- 200 ml (3/4 cup) heavy cream
- 100 ml (about 1/2 cup) chicken broth
- 100 ml (about 1/2 cup) white wine
- salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp lemon juice or to taste
- 4 Whiting (Merlan) fillets about 100 gr (4 oz) per portion, you can use any white, firm fish fillet
- flour
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp aged Picodon goat cheese shaved or ground Parmesan
- about 10 basil leaves, 6 of them cut into slivers and 4 set aside for decoration
- cherry tomatoes or chopped dried tomatoes for garnish
Preparation:
Melt butter into a frying pan and add the shallots. Sautée them over medium to high heat for 3-5 minutes until translucent. Add the heavy cream, chicken broth and white wine and let it simmer for about 5-8 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Season with salt and pepper, add lemon juice to taste. The sauce should have a slight lemony tang. Add the zucchini strips and simmer them in the heavy cream/wine sauce for about 2-3 minutes. Set aside. The zucchini will cook a bit further but remain crunchy at the time of serving. Do not overcook or they will fall apart. Add the shaved Picodon goat cheese or Parmesan. Adjust seasoning but watch the salt, since goat cheese or Parmesan are already salty.
Salt and pepper the fish fillets and powder them with flour. Heat olive oil in the frying pan and fry them for 3-4 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets. Make sure that they get a nice brown crust. Set them aside and keep them warm.
Reheat the zucchini if necessary and add the slivered basil leaves. Arrange the zucchini julienne in the middle of the plate, mounting it up in the center. Place the whiting fillets on top. Garnish with chopped dried tomatoes or cherry tomatoes and the remaining 4 basil leaves.