Today, I got a chance to redo my crispy skinned fish for my portfolio, after decimating it the first time. Chef Shalchian also introduced to us a new technique to cook the fish: basting. The only thing we've cooked before by basting was our filet mignon, and that was delicious. But first, Chef Perez shows us how to break down some beef.
We start by separating the tenderloin from the chain meat with our fingers...
right down the center.
Chef Perez takes a knife to it once he's separated all he can with his hands.
We trim the subcutaneous fat...
and the ever annoying silver skin.
We do this by poking our knife through it and slicing a piece off to create a handle.
Then we slide our knife in the other direction with the blade pointing up so that it takes off just the skin and not the meat.
To take off the first 6oz fillet, Chef Perez goes about twice the length of a regular one so that he can butterfly it open...
and fold it over to look completely normal. Then, he portions the rest of the tenderloin regularly.
For the flank steak, all we had to do was trim any excess fat and connective tissue, and portion 6oz pieces.
My piece weighed exactly 24oz, so I just cut it in half, and then those halves in half.
Chef Shalchian begins the fish demo by showing us where to find the collar on this red snapper, tapping it with the back of her knife. The head is pretty solid, whereas the meat will yield to some pressure.
We start by running our knife about 1/4in deep along the spine, from the collar to the tail...
and from the tail to the collar on the underside.
We cut along the collar with our shears...
and we take the fillet off with our boning knife pressed firmly against the bones.
Perfect yield, Chef Shalchian. But we're not done yet.
Our boning knife is very flexible, so we bend it on the board to remove the curved belly.
We delicately pull out all the pin bones. It's important that we pull in the direction of the bone so we don't mangle the meat, which is very easy to do.
Of course, we give it a final wash.
Here are my fillets.
To get crispy skin on our crispy skinned fish, we need to pat it completely dry.
We score the skin so the fish doesn't curl up during cooking...
and we rain both sides with salt and pepper. And it's not just for show. The reason chefs do this up high is to season uniformly.
Yes, we're frying the fish in clarified butter. Nobody said this was going to be a healthy snack.
Once our fat gets nice and hot, we lay the fish down, skin side first.
Chef Shalchian is in control of her temperature.
She spoons some of that clarified butter...
and we baste. This cooks both sides at the same time, and helps the fish turn out moist and delicious.
Chef Shalchian checks for doneness...
and we flip.
For the beurre blanc, Chef Shalchian reduces her white wine and shallots that she starts together.
She cubes some cold butter...
and that gets whisked in once the wine has reduced about 3/4 the original amount. She seasoned the sauce with salt and white pepper, since this is a white sauce.
And she plates.
This is my crispy skinned durad served with a lemon beurre blanc over rice pilaf. I sweat my shallots before I deglazed with the white wine, lemon zest and lemon juice. I let that reduce until it was barely 2 tablespoons or so, and I strained out the shallots. I started mounting with cold butter, and seasoned with salt and capers, no pepper. Chef Shalchian loved my beurre blance...she said I found the perfect balance between acid and fat. Her criticisms were that I had overcooked the fish, and the plate could use a little green. I could have kicked myself. Back on my station was minced parsley right on my board. But once your plate is in, it's in. I also sauteed some asparagus that I thinly cut on the bias...but I burned that, so it didn't make the cut. I think I made a nice plate, and I'm glad I finally have fish with skin intact for my portfolio.
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