This late winter or early spring dish features an amazing fish from Quebec’s St-Lawrence estuary: the Northern Pike. It is served with winter vegetables such as garlic, beet root and sunchoke.
Ingredients
Northern pike boudin
1 Wild Striped Bass or Pike (around 4-5 lbs), gutted and scaled
500 g / 1 lb of pike flesh
275ml / 9 oz cream 35%
2 whole eggs
1 pinch of myrica gale (can substitute cloves)
Salt to taste
Garlic purée
2 garlic heads
Water
Camelina oil or cold pressed Canola oil
100ml / 3.5 oz vegetable broth or water
Yellow paper beet
2 large yellow beets
Cooking Hay (enough to cover 10″x 10″ Dutch oven)
Salt and pepper to taste
Red beet juice reduction
4 medium sized red beets
2 cloves green alder or black pepper
5 ml /1 teaspoon unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
Salt to taste
Poached sunchoke
12 small sunchokes
1 roll Kombu seaweed
300ml / 10oz cold water
1 grated carrot
1 diced onion
1 grated celery stalk
Pickled seaweed
Dried Irish moss
275 ml / 9 oz apple cider vinegar
100 ml / 3.5 oz water
5 ml / 1 teaspoon sugar
2 g (pinch) sea parsley seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
Mashed rosehips
Fresh Rosehips
10ml / 2 teaspoon unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
Method
Northern pike boudin
Fillet the fish, or have the fishmonger do it for you. Scrape as much of the fish, collecting as much flesh as possible. Cut the fillet to remove the fish belly, which is thin and found underneath the fish. (You can keep this and use it for another dish). Remove the head and fins.Pass the fish through a sifter. Do this repeatedly to form a smooth consistency. Combine the fish, eggs, cream, and myrica gale in the food processor. Mix until you obtain a smooth texture. Season the mixture with salt to taste.To make the boudin, you will need 4 pieces of plastic film, each about 12″x 12”. Divide the fish mixture and roll into 4 equal parts of approximately 5-6 ” inches in length. Lay the four equal parts lengthways along the end of the plastic film to form the boudin. Place the rolls in hot water (about 60C /140F) for 25 minutes. Remove the rolls from the hot water and place them in a bowl of ice water.
Garlic purée
Cook the garlic cloves in the oven at 250f /120c for 1.5 – 2 hours. Once cooked, you’ll be able to squeeze the garlic heads with the touch of a finger. Put the cooked, peeled garlic in the blender with the camelina oil, vegetable broth or water.Season to taste.
Yellow paper beet
Cover the bottom of the Dutch oven with the hay. Lay the unpeeled beets in the oven, then cover with the remaining hay. Cook the beets at 175c/350f for about 2 hours.With a high-speed blender purée the beets. Refrigerate the purée. With a spatula spread out the beat purée over parchment paper. Leave the purée to dry and dehydrate in the oven for 10 hours at 65c or 150f.
Red beet juice reduction
Juice the beets in a vegetable juicer. Cook and reduce the beet juice over low heat until it becomes a thick syrup. Add the apple cider vinegar. Infuse the green alder into the beet syrup for 30 minutes. Remove the green alder and store the syrup in the fridge.
Poached sunchoke
Combine all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 hour, uncovered. Remove from heat and pass mixture through a sift to separate the liquid. Put the liquid back into the pot and add the artichokes. Bring the liquid back to a boil and let the artichokes cook for 10-15 minutes, covered, on low heat (the cooking time depends on the size of the artichokes). Cool the mixture in the refrigerator.
Pickled seaweed
Combine sugar, water and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the sea parsley seeds and refrigerate. Once the mixture has cooled down, pass it through a fine sift to extract the sea parsley seeds.Rehydrate the Irish moss in cold water. Clean moss and rinse thoroughly under the cold water to remove all impurities. Then remove all ends that are too hard from the moss. Mix the Irish moss with vinegar. (The Irish moss can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.)
Note |This can be made up to one week in advance
Mashed rosehips
Thoroughly rinse the rosehips and remove the stalks of the berries. In a saucepan, bring the berries to a boil and let summer for 30 to 45 minutes. When ready, the berries will have the consistency of a jam. When the right consistency is achieved, remove the mixture from the heat and let it stand for 30 minutes. Pass the mixture through a fine sift to remove the pulp and separate the juice. Let the mixture cool in the fridge. Once cooled, let the mixture drip through a coffee filter or cheesecloth for 24 hours. Once you have your final purée, add the vinegar and salt.
To serve
Retrieve the soaked Irish moss from the marinade.Break the yellow beet paper into unequal pieces.Reheat the Jerusalem artichokes on low heat in a quarter of the seaweed liquid. Reduce the liquid to about half. Glaze the artichokes with butter. Preheat the oven to 300f. Remove the plastic film from the fish brochette rolls. In a warm frying pan, melt some butter and add the fish brochette rolls. Cook them for 5 minutes until they are golden brown. After 5 minutes, remove the fish brochette rolls from the pan and cut into three equal pieces. Create lines with the garlic purée and add drops of the beet juice. Place the artichokes on top as well as the fish brochette rolls. Garnish with the rosehip purée, the beetroot paper and the marinated Irish moss.
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