Whisk Wednesdays: Bar à la Normande (Sea Bass with Mushrooms and Cream)

• Class 21, Part 2 (Post on Wednesday, February 4):
Bar à la Normande (Sea Bass with Mushrooms and Cream) pages 180-181

      I finally made this bass recipe this evening (a week late, February 11th), and it was a very big hit here...the guys, as well as myself, loved every last bite of it. 

      The bass is very mild and fresh tasting (scored it at a fancy seafood restaurant here in Carmel that has it flown in, so it was very fresh tasting and wonderful texture...oh my!).  It doesn't smell up the house while cooking at all, which is a very big plus.   

      I didn't do all the cleaning, skinning, etc., as I just purchased it with all that done for me.  While a bit pricey ($26.00 a pound), I had them cut three 5 ounce portions (the one you see on my plate is half of one portion, so it was about 2-1/2 ounces, which was a nice size), so we splurged a little on this meal, but it was very good, delightfully flavorful, and there was not a scrap left when all was said and done.   

      The fish was poached in wine and water (we had the option of using fish stock in place of the water, but since the bass is so mild tasting, I figured I would stick with the wine and water and not complicate things overly much) with a minced shallot thrown in also. 

      The sauce is made from reducing the cooking liquids by half and then adding the creme fraiche and whisking that in.  I might reduce the liquids even further next time to produce a thicker sauce, but this sauce was very lovely on its own. 

      This was one very easy and quick meal...we rounded it off with steamed broccoli and cinnamon glazed butternut squash and I surrounded the fish with the sauteed mushrooms as the recipe suggested...I love mushrooms, can you tell?  The guys also put away a mini loaf of bread, because, well, because they like artisan breads and can do things like that because they are guys and all. 

      Go ahead, buy the book...you can substitute other kinds of fish for this...the method, sauce, and taste is so wonderful, even if you never make another recipe from the book you will be happy you have it (but, I promise, you will make many of the recipes!). 

      If you would like to see how the other Whisk Wednesdays members fared in this class, click

here, and then on the Whisk Wednesdays connect to individual bloggers, or better yet, come and join us!  Shari has the ingredients posted on her site at the click, so while we can't post the recipe instructions, you can at least look at the ingredients, and I bet you can figure out a lot of it from there.

 

  Next Week's Assignment:  

Class 21, Part 3:
Pigeonneaux en Papillote (Squab Cooked in Papillotes) pages 219-220 {Substitute salmon for squab.}