FILLET OF TURBERT
WITH BABY LEEKS, BROAD BEANS AND MORELS.
Begin with the sauce. Finely chop the shallots, celery,
celeriac and leek. Melt the butter in a pan over a
medium heat and sweat the vegetables for a few
minutes until they are soft but have not coloured up.
Add the Champagne, bring to the boil and reduce the
liquid until almost syruplike in consistency. Then add
the stocks to the pan and reduce the heat and simmer
for 5-10 minutes. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve
into a clean saucepan, season with pepper and Maldon
salt and finish with the juice of half a lemon. Keep it
warm.
For the cauliflower purée, cook the cauliflower in the
milk and enough water to cover until it is tender. Drain
it thoroughly, then put it in a liquidiser with the cream,
butter and seasoning. Blend to a smooth purée, season
to taste and keep warm.
Cut the fish fillets into squares and season them with
Maldon salt. Sauté the fish in olive oil and butter until
golden brown and just cooked.
While the fish is cooking, cut the baby leeks down to
5cm long and cook them briefly in the chicken stock
with butter, pepper and Maldon. Remove the stalks
from the morels and sauté the tops in butter; add a little
stock or consommé to braise them until tender.
Ingredients
For the fish: 4 x 150g thick fillets of turbot
Maldon sea salt
40ml olive oil
40g butter
For the sauce:
50g of shallots
2 sticks of celery, trimmed
40g celeriac
1 medium leek
100g butter
Half a bottle of Champagne
25-ml excellent chicken stock
50ml excellent vegetable stock
John Williams
Executive Chef, The Ritz London