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04/16/08 |
                          
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Cocoa-dusted Snapper w/orange cream sauce Yields 4 c.
~for snapper~ 4 ea. 6 oz. red snapper fillets 2 T. dark cocoa powder 1 T. five-spice powder 2 t. wasabi powder 1 1/2 t. cardamom, ground 1/4 t. kosher salt butter for frying ~for sauce~ 1 1/2 c. heavy cream 1/2 c. orange juice 1/2 t. cayenne pepper, ground kosher salt to taste
In a small bowl, combine all dry ingredients for dust. Spread out snapper fillets on your cutting board and, using a spoon, dust with cocoa mix. Not too much, not too little. Knock excess off of fillets back into the bowl, flip them over and do it again. Melt about 2T. butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add fillets and fry about two minutes. CAREFULLY flip them over and cook another couple minutes or until done. Set 'em in your favorite hot-holding device until you're ready to serve. For the sauce, just combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium-high heat, and bring them to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the sauce gets nice and thick. Y'know, like what you see at those fancy restaurants. Place one fillet on each plate and drizzle with the sauce. Maybe 2-4 oz. per piece. And quite honestly, I have NO idea what to serve with this. I'll get back to you on that.
Note from GG: In the lone moment of inspiration I've gleaned from Iron Chef America, I saw a guy attempt to dust a red mullet with cocoa and pass it off as a perfected dish. Not only did the judges not really like it, but they said that they couldn't taste the cocoa! What's the point of doing a cocoa dusting if you can't taste the cocoa? Damn right he lost. Anyway, the idea really intrigued me, so I did my version of it at work the other day. I thought the cardamom would help out the cocoa flavour without overpowering it, while the wasabi adds an unobtrusive spiciness to the dust. Five-spice rounds everything out. It's important to note here that I would recommend butter for frying as opposed to oil, since I think the butter brings out the chocolaty-ness better. It also gives it a nice moist sheen. I also want to say that this is not a sweet dish by any means, though the two servers that I let try it it both thought it would be good for breakfast. The cocoa powder we use at work is also some pretty staunch stuff; I'm not sure how this would taste with a lesser grade powder, like Hershey's or whatever. I'll ask my pastry chef and see what she says. My sauté guy and I also did a version where we added cornstarch to the dust (about twice the volume of the dust ingredients) and turned it into a dredge. First you coat the fish with egg whites, then dredge it in the mix and either pan-fry it in oil or deep-fry it. That version came out with a really nice crisp coating, but the colour was lacking. And the sauce? C'mon man. Orange and chocolate LOVE each other.
This site was last updated 12/20/06 |
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