RecipeFrom A Past Edition Of
The New Orleans Menu Daily
By Tom Fitzmorris
Sea Bream Nouvelle Creole

I am no fan of seafood dishes with tomato sauces. However, sometimes they're spectacular. In this one, the conjunction of hollandaise with the tomato sauce is what makes the magic. It can be prepared with many species of white fish. I recommend the inexpensive and excellent sea bream (the polite name for sheepshead), but redfish, trout, red snapper, and lemonfish would also be good.

This recipe begins with Creole sauce, which is actually seldom used in Creole cooking.

 Creole Sauce:
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 1 bell pepper, minced
  • 2 ribs of celery, chopped
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 bunch green onions, sliced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1/2 cup tomato puree
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme
  • 1/2 tsp. chopped garlic
  • 2 leaves fresh basil, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
  • Salt and pepper
Fish:
  • 8 fillets sheepshead, 4-6 oz. each
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 Tbs. butter
  • 2 Tbs. oil
Topping:
  • 1 Tbs. butter
  • 4 large mushrooms, quartered
  • 1 lb. crabmeat
  • 1 Tbs. white wine
  • 1 Tbs. lemon juice
  • 1/2 bunch green onions, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. Tabasco jalapeno sauce
1. Heat olive oil in heavy saucepan and in it cook onions, bell pepper, garlic, celery, tomatoes, and green onions until onions are  translucent.    

2. Add all other sauce ingredients except basil and cook over medium-low heat for seven minutes, until thickened. Add basil, remove the bay leaves, and cook another three minutes. Season to taste, remove from heat, and hold warm.

3. Blend the salt and pepper into the flour. Mix the egg and milk to make a wash. Dust the fish with a little of the seasoned flour. Pass through the in egg wash, then shake off the excess. Dredge in the seasoned flour, and again shake off the excess.

4. Heat butter and oil over high heat in a skillet. Sauté the fish two to three minutes on each side, till golden. Remove, drain, and keep warm.

5. Pour off all but about a tablespoon of the butter and oil in the pan, and in it sauté the mushrooms over medium heat until they soften. Add the rest of the topping ingredients and sauté about two minutes, until warmed all the way through. 

6. Ladle the Creole sauce onto the plates. Place two fish fillets atop each. Add a heaping tablespoon of the topping over each fillet, then a stripe of hollandaise. Finish with a pinch of cayenne.

Serves four.

Click here for an index of recipes from past editions.
© 2009 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com