This week-end, I nearly failed the most easy dishe on earth : a seafood choucroute. So easy you just need to buy a ready-cooked choucroute, add different kinds of fish, steamed potatoes and serve with a beurre blanc sauce. Easy, I said !
I had prepared all the ingrédients, salon marinade in garnis, fresh ginger and lemon for the fish, scallops and gambas for a taste of luxury, nice little potasses, and a good kilo of choucroute bought at the delicatessen. And then…
Horror all mighty ! When I taste the choucroute, it is dreadfully acid and tastes of smoked bacon, because that is what a regular choucroute is made with. Impossible to serve it with fish, especially when marinated with lemon and ginger.
I was on the way to give up, cook some rice instead or even go back to the shops get some sauvage and porc to make a regular choucroute. When my scientific husband passed by and suggested the trick to save my lunch : rince the choucroute in water to take away the acid taste.
– In water ? You are sure ?
– Definitely, this is science, you’ll see : by diluting the acid in water or another base like bleach, the Ph will increase and all the acid will go away in the dilution !
– (…)
So I rinced the choucroute (wasn’t too confident on the bleach there) and yes it lost all the acid … and all its taste in the same time. Oups. I took the chance of changing completely the taste of it since since it didn’t have any more and cooked it un butter with a bit of ginger and garlic paste and slices of lemon. I twisted my sauce au beurre blanc with a bit of lemongrass to highlight the lemon in the choucroute.
What a hit ! The choucroute be came extremely soft and slightly acid, perfect to serve with delicate scallops. And the lemongrass in the sauce, just fantastic !
I can now reveal the secret of a choucroute deliciously twisted with lemongrass and ginger. And you’ll tell me what you think about it !
In my fridge and cupboards, I have
4 saumon filets marinated with garlic and ginger paste and lemon
18 raw and defrosted gambas
18 raw and defrosted scallops
1 kilo of washed choucroute
1 table spoon of garlic and ginger paste
200 g + 50g butter
10 cl white wine
1 shallot
half a stick of lemongrass
20 cl cream
3 slices of non treated lemon
Salt and pepper
To save my seafood choucroute I:
Washed the choucroute a few times to take away its taste. I took away all remaniant bits of bacon and juniper berries. I cokes it in a cocher with butter, lemon ange garnis and ginger passe for 30 minutes. In parallel, I peel and steam cook the potatoes (30 minutes in the steam cooker for example).
In the meantime, I prepare the beurre blanc sauce by chopping finely the shallot and the lemongrass. I gently fry them in butter, until the shallots are soft. They should not color. I deglaze with the wine and cook 10 more minutes gently. Then I add the cream and put it to boil. I turn off th heat and add slowly the butter until it melts in the sauce
At this stage, if the cream is too hot, the butter will not met in the sauce. To fix this, use your hand mixer.
Once the sauce is ready, I leave it to rest out of the stove.
The sauce will be heated later on very gently, préférable in a water bath to prevent it from falling apart.
Then I cook the salmon in the star cocher for 15 minutes and stir-fry the scalps and gambas with the remaining butter. I add salt and pepper.
The dish is served immediately with a piece of salmon, 3 scallops, 3 gambas, some potatoes and a big portion of choucroute topped with beurre blanc sauce.
So, how would you have saved your choucroute ?
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