Yum

This Emeril recipe is one of the best things I've tasted in a while.  It's called "Oysters, Scallops, and Crawfish Bordelaise in Puff Pastry," but an internet search suggests that it's not really a bordelaise sauce, which classically refers to a sauce based on Bordeaux wine and a meat demi-glace.  Also, it seems to me you could use any seafood, as long as you have some dry white wine and some seafood stock.  Whatever, this Emeril take on the traditional sauce is amazing, either in store-bought frozen puff pastry or (if those aren't handy), just on pasta.  We make fish stock from our fish frames or shrimp heads and/or shells, then freeze it for later use.

First you soften garlic and shallots in a pan, then briefly add the seafood, removing and reserving it in a bowl as soon as it's cooked.  Add wine and a little cognac and cook it down to half its volume.  Add fish stock, salt, and pepper and reduce again to half its volume. Stir in some chopped tomato, then butter, then the final herbs, including tarragon. Finally, add the cooked seafood back in.  The concentrated flavors from those two reductions make it unbelievably good.

1 comment:

Elise said...

Thanks for this. I love scallops but my husband is not crazy about them. Putting this over linguine sounds like a good way to make both of us happy.

I generally dislike fresh tarragon so I'll probably substitute dried and replace a little of the white wine with Pernod. (I have a bottle bought ages ago to make a truly nasty fish and fennel dish.)

I'm hoping it's possible to buy seafood stock - I bet Whole Foods carries it. If not, there's an actual fish market a couple of towns over that should.