Top Chef with Teanna - Season 6, Episode 4 - Warm Cured Trout with Deconstructed Bernaise

I must apologize this I was Tardy for the Party on this one.  

If you didn't recognize that saying, I was giving a shoutout Kim of Real Housewives of Atlanta. Check out her song. Laugh a little.

I got off track with my scheduling a little bit on this one.  And sadly, after making about 15 winning Top Chef meals, this is my first failure.

Can I have a moment of silence for the dish?

..................

Thank you for your concern.

This was the most complicated dish I have made so far (but I haven't yet gotten to Season 2, which is chock full of Marcel's foams and gelees). The deconstructed Bernaise called for xantham gum, which by no means is a hard to find ingredient (check out Whole Foods if your supermarket doesn't have it), but I couldn't justify a $15 purchase for a teaspoon of xantham gum when I never use it otherwise.  It also called for Transglutaminase Activa RM (meat glue) to shape the fish. I was fresh out.  

Let's start from the beginning. I prepared my brine, which consisted of water, salt, orange and lemon zest, tarragon, long red peppers, sugar and coriander seeds.  This smelled like the most wonderful of wonderful brines.  There was a lot of salt, but I figured that that was just because it was curing the trout. I wanted to cure myself in it. But instead, I placed the fish in and let it cure overnight.

The next day, I started to prepare the deconstructed bernaise. And this is where everything started to take a turn.  The bernaise called for sherry vinegar, turmeric, long peppers, shallots, and chicken demiglace, which a grapeseed oil and xantham gum to be added at the end. I didn't make any chicken demiglace because I sometimes think I'm super brilliant and don't read recipes ahead of time, which always leads to mistakes.  I was also just fresh out of veal bones and chicken carcasses (I used it with my Transglutaminase Activa RM),  so I decided to use chicken stock and wing it.  And because I was not using xantham gum, I needed something to make the sauce thick. So I started off by maxing a white roux and then added the rest of the ingredients.  It worked like a charm. I was walking on air!  I was singing Nobody Gonna Break My Stride by Matthew Wilder.

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride

Nobody gonna slow me down, oh no

I got to keep on moving

Good song.

The fish was to be cooked in a cryovac bag with an aromatic cooking oil in an immersion circulator.  I could go with the "I was fresh out of cryovac bags and I still haven't unpacked my immersion circulator" thing, but I fear that joke just got old.  So instead, I decided to bake the fish in a 425 oven for 15 minutes, which obviously changed the texture of the fish.  But that was not the problem. The problem was that I completely forgot the aromatic cooking oil (seriously, I didn't realize that I didn't do it until I just referred to the recipe right now) which consisted of orange and lemon zests, tarragon, long red peppers, olive oil, shallots, coriander and fennel seeds.  Listen to all of those flavors, people!  I wasn't even Tardy for the Party on this one! I just didn't show up!

The dish called for pommes souffle. In case you do not know the method to cooking pommes souffle, I'm gonna break it down.  Two pots of oil:  one at 275 degrees, the other at 380 degrees, in this case. Take some thinly sliced potatoes (1/16 of an inch), put them in the first pot and wait for the pot to BUBBLE OVER and then place them in the second pot until they puff up.  

I'm all about setting fires in my kitchen, but it is often not on purpose. So I decided to make shoestring potato chips by using a julienne slicer and frying the potatoes. 

I was excited to try the dish. I plated all of my ingredients, took some photos in the quickly setting light, and took a bite. 

SALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLT!

I mean, SO MUCH SALT that I had to spit it out.  Like Padma spit out Arianne's dish last year! Like Kathy Lee Gifford spit out Jeff's dish last year!  Like Teanna spit out her own dish yesterday! 

Like, my heart started pounding and my blood pressure rose, I'm-not-even-kidding-you salty.

Which was a shame, because the fish smelled SO good. Of tarragon and orange and coriander.  And the deconstructed bernaise was so interesting and tasty. And my chips were awesome.

So what did I do wrong?  Did I accidentally use too much salt in the brine?  I did cut the recipe in half, so maybe I accidentally put the whole amount of salt listed in the recipe in. Was it the fact that I forgot the aromatic cooking oil? Where did I go wrong? Tom Colicchio, I need your help!

This dish was definitely on the more challenging side of any dish I have made so far, but even after all of my problems, I wouldn't say that it was impossible.  It actually was very easy to simplify.  

Scary Scale (out of ten): 7

Would I make it again?  I'll let you know when my salt headache goes away. 

Warm Cured Trout adapted from Brian Voltaggio and Mike Isabella

12 Servings

INGREDIENTS

6 (½ lb portions) trout filets

For Brine

300 ml water

100g salt

50g sugar

10g coriander seeds

10g fennel seeds

2 long peppers

5 fresh tarragon stems with leaves

¼ bay leaf

1 orange, zested

1 lemon, zested

For Reduction Sauce/Base

3 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons butter

350 ml sherry vinegar

8 fresh tarragon stems with leaves

2 long peppers

2 shallots, sliced

20g turmeric

½ cup chicken stock

350ml grapeseed oil

For Shallot Garnish

¼ cup minced Shallots

1 ½ cups Verjus (or 3 pints Port + 1 pint Red Wine Vinegar)

For Julienned Potatoes

1 Russet Potato, sliced into julienne

Cooking Oil

 

DIRECTIONS

For Trout:

Dust trout with transglutaminase and attach filets flesh to flesh head to tail to make 3 cylinders. Roll tightly in plastic wrap.

While trout sits in refrigerator for 35-40 minutes to set shape, make brine by mixing ingredients together and completely dissolving salt and sugar. Cool down.

Combine ingredients for cooking oil and heat to make aromatic oil.

Preheat oven to 350.  Place trout filet in oven and bake for 15 minutes.

For Reduction/Sauce Base:

Combine ingredients except grapeseed oil. Reduce to a third of the original volume.

Add grapeseed oil right before plating.

For Shallot Garnish:

Combine ingredients for shallot mixture and reduce until the shallots are al dente.

Strain out shallots and reduce the liquid to au sec. Coat shallots with reduction.

For Julienned Potato Chips:

Heat oil to 380 F.  Fry until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Remove from oil, season with salt salt.

To Serve:

Place trout on plate.

Spoon warm béarnaise sauce on the side.

Place garnishes in the sauce.

Rest potato chips on trout.

Comments

[Alta]

Wow, that sounds intense! So sorry it failed! And I'll just go ahead and send props your way for trying it, and more props for those Marcel recipes to come!

[Andrea@WellnessNotes]

Love your Kim reference! But now I have that "song" stuck in my head! :)

So sorry the dish turned out too salty! But it looks very pretty... ;)

[Spike]

I loved on the show when they said if you mix the deconstructed bearnaise together it tastes like bearnais. he he. Sorry about the sodium overload. It LOOKS amazing though!

[Erin]

Well, it looks great and you are awesome for trying! I, too, have the song in my head now.

[jenn]

Teanna, I LOVE the presentation of this! It looks so elegant. I think I'd be staring at it before I'd eventually eat it. This looks really good.

[The Duo Dishes]

The dish does look good on the plate. It is true that salt overload can be a big problem. :/ Hmmm, looks like it's worth a re-do!

[Brian Chen]

Wow, searching for a plum tart photo I came upon your website, very nice work indeed, I'll have to look around some more then I find the time. Everything looks sooo delicious!

[Phyllis (me HUNGRY!)]

LOL - I had no idea 'Tardy for the Party' was already being played on radio stations, I just watched the housewives episode last night! I don't think you did anything wrong when making this dish, sometimes chefs are just really aggressive with the salt. Such a shame it was too salty because your plating and photo are gorgeous!

[Jen @ My Kitchen Addiction]

Sorry it didn't turn out for you... I'm still impressed. It looks beautiful in the photos!

[Natasha - 5 Star Foodie]

Aw, I'm so sorry about the trout! You are certainly very brave to take on the dish that Joel Robuchon himself was impressed with. It sounds like your bernaise & the chips were excellent though :)

[carli]

Damn you Teanna! I have that song stuck in my head now.

The real kicker is....I have only watched ONE episode of that silly show and it just so happened to be the one with this (even sillier) song.

Ah!! For the love of all.

Let's see....what song can I pick to replace this one.

I know-

SHOUT, SHOUT, LET IT ALL OUT. THESE ARE THE THINGS I CAN DO WITHOUT, SO COME O-ON. I'M TALKIN' TO YOU. SO COME O-ON.

Where did THAT come from??????

[Desiree Morgan-Castelalr]

o my goodness this looks so delicious...especially those thin potato slices..I gotta try that...that oil pot stuff sounds so scary though...ill talk to you about it when I see you....funny post...you should def try it again dont give up

[grace]

these chefs SHOULD be making dishes that the cooks at home could potentially goof up. that said, i continue to be impressed by your skills (and amused by your antics). keep it up!

[Cheri]

Beautiful photo! You could have told me that it tasted like a dream and I would have believed you because it looks absolutely scrumptious.

[Miranda]

Beautiful. Flavorful. Simple.
My kind of dish..I love it!!

[lisaiscooking]

This dish did look amazing on the show. Sounds like you did a great job re-interpreting it. Too bad about the salt.

[Eliana]

OH GEEZ - Tardy for the party. I can't stop laughing right now.

[Ann]

Bravo!! The recipe sounds like six sides of crazy, I had no idea how complicated it was behind the scenes. Your plate looks amazing, too bad about the salt.
I predict those odd beady eyed Voltaggio bros are going to coast to the finals.
I also predict Mike Isabella(?) will go out in a blaze of glory and a case of severe foot-in-mouth-itis.

[Ashley]

Yikes! Sorry to hear this didn't turn out so well. You're awesome for attempting all these recipes and modifying them to a more regular kitchen/pantry though!

[Tracey]

Oh wow, you are brave!! With an ingredient list like that, I would have given up before I even started :) Sorry it didn't work out - it looks wonderful!