New Year's Eve, Part 2
Now, where was I? Ah, yes. New Year's Eve, main course. This course was one of the experiments. We were having a guest a few nights later who eats fish but not much more in the way of meat. I had been itching to try the Prosciutto-Wrapped Striped Bass from East of Paris and so decided to do a non-Prosciutto version for our upcoming guest. This meant doing a trial run.
The dish is relatively simple: sauté onion and bell peppers, add saurkraut and paprika and braise for a while (roughly an hour if I remember right). Let cool. Lay out two fillets of striped bass, season, cover one fillet with the cabbage and pepper mixture, put the other fillet on top, and tie them together. Sear the package on each side (fish skin down), and then roast. Serve with more of the filling (each person gets half of each fish, cut crosswise across the fish). I modified this in a few ways.
I put the cooked fish on a heap of the filling as the recipe suggested, but I first combined the filling with sautéed spinach and shiitake mushrooms. Also I made a fumet (fish stock) which I used to make a simple veloute sauce. The woman standing next to me in the store was curious about my request for two striped bass, gutted, scaled, and filleted but with the carcasses included (I had to work that day, so didn't have the time to do it myself). I'm not sure my explanation made any sense to her, but the stock I made from the fish skeletons was worth the curious looks.
This recipe is another winner from East of Paris. A lot of good flavors going on, as well as beautiful colors. Now that our piscivore dinner guest has come and gone, however, I hope to make the prosciutto-wrapped version soon.
To go with the main course, some of us finished off the Gruner Veltliner while some of us switched to the Vino de Casa from Ceja. This was one of the bottles from our wine club, and though its price tag prevents it from actually being the "house wine" its name suggests, it's an enjoyable wine with a lot of character and complexity. It is scrumptiously fruity, with cherry dominating but other aromas adding layers that invite appreciation.
The cheese course was easy for us; we had recently gotten some great cheeses from our cheese club. We enjoyed a Pierce Point from Cowgirl Creamery as well as a Colton Bassett Stilton. With the cheese I served more of the cherry compote I had used as interior garnish for a recent foie gras terrine.
Finally for dessert I served a round chocolate brownie topped with hazelnuts, which I served with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. Another experiment for the dinner party two days later, so I'll talk more about it then. But with it, I served a good Madeira. Madeira isn't usually to my taste (I tend to not be a big fortified wine person), but this worked well with the brownie and hazelnuts.
So what was the dinner party we were doing all these experiments for? You'll have to come back in a couple more days to find out, I'm afraid.
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