Escabèche with lime & Verjus

A few weeks ago, I was looking for a fish dish to serve at room temperature for a jewish fest. The oven can't be used the day when the dish is served so I had to find a way to serve cooked fish. The "escabèche" sauce was the perfect solution... The acidity of the marinade preserves the cooked or seared fish and no gas or electricity energy is used! 

Here is a recipe where lime juice and verjus (pressed juice of unripened white grapes) are used instead of the usual vinegar and white wine for acidity

• Safran
• Coriander seeds
• Cardamome seeds
• Orange juice 100 gr
• Lime juice 50 gr
• Verjus 100 gr
• Olive oil 150 gr
• Small pimento 1

Toast seeds and add safran

Deglaze with juices. Simmer for a few minutes

Out of the stove, add olive oil and pimento.

You can use the marinade with fish, vegetables, shrimps...

Emulsified Sauces (III) : mothers and derivated warm sauces

There are two basic emulsified warm sauces, the two well-known Sauce Hollandaise and Sauce Bearnaise.

Both are made from a sabayon base. The Bearnaise involves a reduction* (of shallot, tarragon, peppercorns in white wine and/or vinegar).
Emulsified sauces are fairly delicate, as they will break or curdle easily.

There is nothing you can do when your sauce curdled. Just try again :-(
In case of a break or separation of your preparation, you may give a try to restabilize your preparation with these tips.

• if too hot, adds a few drops of cold water and keep whisking
• if the sauce looks like it is about to break, cool the bottom of the bowl by dipping it into an ice bath
• if kept to cold, add a few drops of hot water and whisk again.

You will find both recipes at the following links, Hollandaise and Bearnaise.

These two sauces are called sauces meres (mother sauce) as they are the base of many derivated sauces (sauce derivee).

Examples for Hollandaise, Mousseline (whipped cream), Maltaise, (orange zest and juice), Mikado (mandarin zest and juice), Noisette (with browned butter), Dijon (add Dijon mustard), also known as Moutarde or Girondine...and many other variations...

Examples for Bearnaise, Foyot (add meat glaze), also known as Valoise, Colbert (addition of reduced white wine), Choron (tomato purée), Paloise (substitute mint for tarragon), Tyrolienne (oil instead of clarified butter)...

*Reduction is the process of Thickening or intensifying the flavor of a liquid mixture by evaporation.

Emulsified Sauces (I) : cohabitation between two ennemies...

An emulsion is a good example of cohabitation between two ingredients which usually can stand each other. It is a stable distribution of microscopic droplets of one liquid into another with which is would not mix normally. Huile (oil) and Vinaigre (vinegar) are the obvious example in Cooking.

Nevertheless, stabilisation needs a third part : an emulsifying agent. Most of the time, it is the Jaune d'Oeuf (egg yolk). Egg yolk has two major qualities : it is lipophilic (affinity with fat) and also hydrophilic (affinity with water) which makes of it a very good friend for every sauce (basic or derivated). It is also very powerful : one single egg yolk can bind between 150 ml and 200 ml !!!.

This agent is used for warm emulsified sauces (e.g. Sauce Bearnaise) and cold emulsified sauces (e.g.Sauce Mayonnaise).