Classic Koffmann – Review, recipe and giveaway
September 9, 2017 by Jenny
Classic Koffmann: 50 Years a
Chef captures the passion of Pierre Koffmann who has dedicated
five decades to his love of French cuisine.
Gorgeous photos radiate off the pages, testimonials from fellow chefs, as well as conversations with him – all make for one stellar cookbook. The pièce de résistance, for me, is the red satin place marker with a darling cardboard pig lassoed to the end which somehow transforms this serious cookbook into something more approachable and playful.
The recipes run the gamut from a simply elegant, lentils, foie gras and crispy duck skin with a few ingredients and steps to a project dish of snail ravioli with garlic butter sauce that sounds easy but has a laundry list of ingredients and multiple components. Every aspect of French cuisine is covered in this book that so brilliantly reflects Chef Koffmann’s life and his love of being a chef.
Special thanks to Jacqui Small Publishers for sharing the following recipe with our members and for providing three copies of this title to our members in the US, UK and Canada. Please be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post for contest information.
Daurade, légumes d’automne
rôties
Black bream and roasted autumn vegetables
Bream is a generic name for a range of fish, including black, red and white bream, porgies in the USA, and the Mediterranean daurade royale (gilt head bream), which is widely acknowledged to be the best and is definitely my favourite. The black bream I’ve used here is the next best, and more often my choice because not only is it always wild (I only ever cook wild fish), but it is inexpensive and the flesh is juicy but firm and full of flavour. It’s not quite as sweet as gilt head bream but still delicious and a perfect match for the earthy autumn root vegetables I’ve served it with here.
Serves 4
- 210g (7½oz/1 scant cup) unsalted butter
- 200g (7oz/1 cup) butternut squash, cut into 1cm (½in) dice
- 200g (7oz/1 cup) Jerusalem artichokes, cut into 1cm (½in) dice
- 200g (7oz/3 sticks) salsify (oyster plant)
- juice of ½ lemon
- 4 x 200g (7oz) black bream or sea bream fillets, scaled (you can ask your fishmonger to do this for you)
- 100g (3½oz/²/3 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 100ml (3½fl oz/¹/3 cup) olive oil
- salt and pepper
- beurre blanc (see page 276),
- to serve finely chopped chives, to garnish
Divide the butter into three. Add the first third to a small saucepan, along with a splash of water. Add the squash and cook it in the butter slowly, over a low-medium heat, until soft and golden, then remove from the pan, transfer to a serving dish and set aside in a low oven to keep warm. Add another third of the butter to the pan and cook the Jerusalem artichokes in the same way, then add them to the dish of squash.
Peel the salsify (oyster plant) and immediately place in a pan of cold water with the lemon juice. Bring to the boil and simmer until tender – about 10 minutes, depending on their size. Drain and cut into batons.
Add the final third of the butter to the saucepan and pan-fry the salsify (oyster plant) until golden, then add them to the other vegetables. Set aside, covered, over a low heat while you cook the bream.
Roll the fish in the flour until covered, then shake or tap it firmly to remove the excess.
Season the fish on both sides. In a large frying pan (skillet), heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the bream, skin-side down, and fry for about 4 minutes, then flip them over and cook for a further 2 minutes, until tender and with a lovely golden colour.
Serve the fish on a bed of the vegetables with the beurre blanc poured over and sprinkled with the chives.
Beurre blanc
Makes about 1.25 litres (2 pints/1¾ quarts)
- 50g (1¾oz/3 tbsp) shallots, finely chopped
- 300ml (10fl oz/1¼ cups) white wine vinegar
- 50ml (3 tbsp) dry white wine
- 150g (5½oz/²/3 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Place the shallot, vinegar and wine in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil and bubble until almost no liquid remains. Pour in 200ml (7fl oz/1 scant cup) of cold water and bring back to the boil, then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and slowly add the butter, a cube at a time, whisking and incorporating each addition before adding more, to give the sauce a lovely creamy texture. Set aside in a warm place until needed.
The publisher is offering three copies of this title to EYB Members in the US, UK and Canada. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.
Which recipe in the index are you excited to try first?
Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest
before posting or your entry won’t be counted. Please be sure to
check your spam filters to make sure you receive our email
notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the
publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at
midnight on October 15th, 2017.
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