I have herbs de Provence, halibut, wine & butter, now what?
After having had a beautiful halibut in a creamy herby buttersauce at a great little French restaurant nearby, I pried out of the waiter the tidbit that the sauce involved herbs de Provence and I believe chablis, as well as the requisite butter.
I now have these ingredients and am wondering how I should cook them together so that they will taste tasty.
:D
Cinnamon
Mar 05, 2007 08:17PM
Not really sure, but a basic, sort of creamy sacue, is made similar to beurr blanc. Just saute shallots, in a little butter, season with herbs de provence, add wine and reduce by a lot, more than half gone. Cut cold butter into tablespoons, add one table spoon at a time, whisking until the tablespoon is fully emulsified before adding the next. Don't have exact requirements sorry.
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Thanks very much - I basically tried this, just starting with olive oil instead of butter (due to fear of browning and lack of pre-clarified butter). After the wine reduced, I strained it and then added the butter. The sauce was tasty. I now have a refined couple of questions...
The sauce at the restaurant was creamy white and kind of almost foamy - at least thick. Mine wasn't quite that, though I gave it a shot with an egg beater at the end. Should I be starting or finishing maybe with cream, or reducing the wine much more perhaps? (Or how else to achieve the consistency.)
Also, what's a good amount of time to let the wine reduce, with the herbs in it? (That is, how long to impart the shallots and dried herbs' flavor pretty well, if you're going to strain it.)
As a side note, I had pretty good luck with the halibut. I found the advice here (in the last graph before the recipes) to be terrific - I baked the halibut (a couple of steaks amounting to nearly 1 lb.) until a meat thermometer read 135:
http://www.sallys-place.com/food/colu...
(I was aiming for 130 but it was really 135-140 by the time I got it out. First I dredged the steaks in flour, salted, browned in hot olive oil on each side, then stuck them in a preheated 450 oven for what turned out to be barely over 5 minutes.)
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Here is a great 'lesson' of a recipe for halibut in a creamy white wine butter sauce (beurre blanc) from Alfred Portale. I have made it several times and it comes out like a restaurant quality dish. You can vary the flavors to suit yourself, but it is awfully good as is. Chablis will be perfect to use, but only French Chablis which is dry. American Chablis is an inferior bulk product that is on the sweet side and won't be as good.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...
And I have cut the recipe in half, no problem.
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Thank you! (And especially for the advice about the French Chablis. I'll use French herbs, French Chablis and do they make French halibut? My husband pronounces it hali-boo anyway.)
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A lot of the creaminess of the sauce probably comes from using whole butter rather than oil or clarified butter, I doubt you'd actually need to use cream. If you start with a slow sweat of the shallots in whole butter and add the herbs, then deglaze with/add the wine you won't burn the butter you start with. The suggestion above to whisk in whole, cold butter at the end is a good one and a classic technique. It will thicken the sauce considerably and add an amazing creaminess. You can strain the whole thing right at the end, directly over the fish if you like. A sauvignon blanc will probably serve well as a substitute for a French Chablis.
As for reduction time...with shallots and (I'm presuming) dried herbs, 20 minutes or so will get you good flavor and if you start the sauce and then prep/cook the fish, probably happen all in about the same time. In fact, I think I might have to try this one myself, it sounds tasty.
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And another key is to remove the sauce from the heat before you add the butter at the end, and whisk a lot, and serve immediately.
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Wonderful, thank you, ccbweb.
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