Enhanced with oysters and ginger, this version of a classic French sauce perfectly complements the sweet flavor and firm but tender texture of the tilefish, while the cabbage and mushrooms add an earthy finishing touch.
Ingredients
Tilefish
- 4 6-ounce fillets with skin on
- 2 sprigs thyme or rosemary
- Canola oil
- Salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
Sauce
- 4 cups champagne
- 3⁄4 cup cream
- 1 pound butter
- 1 dozen oysters
- 1 cup shallots (sliced)
- 1⁄4 cup ginger (sliced)
- 1⁄8 cup peppercorns
Veggies
- 1 pound savoy cabbage (stems removed)
- 1⁄2 cup mushrooms (hedgehog, crimini or baby bella)
- 1⁄2 tablespoon butter
- Salt
Recipe
Sauce
1. Place shallots, ginger, peppercorns and 1 tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan at medium heat for three to five minutes, mixing well.
2. Add champagne and oysters with their liquid, then reduce the champagne until au sec (almost dry).
3. Strain out the shallots, ginger, peppercorns and oysters (set oysters aside), add cream, then salt to taste.
4. Add butter incrementally, whisking slowly in the same direction to emulsify the sauce.
5. Drop eight oysters (two per serving) back in the sauce and pull from heat.
Veggies
1. Sauté mushrooms in butter, then pull pan from heat.
2. Have ice-water bath ready to shock cabbage.
3. Boil water and drop in cabbage for one to two minutes, take it out while still bright green and drop in ice-water bath to stop the cooking process, then squeeze water out and set aside.
4. Drop cabbage into sauté pan with the mushrooms, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of sauce and heat slowly, mixing well for two minutes.
Fish
1. Place fish fillets (skin down) in a preheated pan with canola oil (smoking slightly), season with salt, and cook two to three minutes.
2. Place the pan with the fillets in a 300-degree oven for five or six minutes.
3. Pull fish from oven, place on stove-top on medium, add butter and sprigs of thyme or rosemary, then baste with melted butter for two or three minutes.
4. Pull from heat and plate each fillet with two oysters (from the sauce) on top.
5. Serve portion of cabbage and mushroom mix next to each fillet, add another oyster for garnish, then spoon sauce over the fish.
