Happy New Year! To start the New Year off right, let's start off with a healthy recipe, shall we?
After all of the holiday indulgences, it's time to lighten up with this incredible, so-good-I-can't-believe-it-doesn't-have-cream-or-butter dish. Harold Dieterle, the winner of Top Chef Season 1 actually won the 1st Top Chef Challenge ever. The challenge of the episode, titled "Who Deserves to Be Here", was to basically cook a fantastic meal to serve to your peers. Harold won with this dish - a steamed Thai Snapper atop braised Brussel sprout leaves and a butternut squash puree topped with chanterelle mushrooms and rock shrimp.
I made this dish a few years back (please click here and laugh at the photo) and forgot how good it was. I revisted it a little bit - changing out the snapper for sole (whenever I get snapper, it is filled with bones. I'm not sure why. I'm not a fishmonger (I love that word, I use it whenever I get the chance), actually found Rock Shrimp (and WOW are they flavorful), and omitted the chanterelle mushrooms, which I can never find fresh.
This dish is a snap (get it? snap? Snapper?... Anyone?) to throw together and it is so incredibly satisfying. When I say that you won't believe that it is healthy, I'm not kidding. The sauce is rich and thick and bursting with the rich, sweet flavor of butternut squash.
4 fillets Lemon Sole
Sauce:
1 butternut squash
1 cup chicken broth
2 piece garlic
2 shallots
Vegetables:
1 cup brussels sprouts leaves
2 oz. rock Shrimp
2 teaspoon chives
2 teaspoon parsley
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste.
Directions:
Skin and dice butternut squash for 15 minutes at 375°.
Sweat garlic and shallots in 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-low heat while butternut squash is roasting. When squash is done, add squash meat. Cover with chicken stock and simmer 10 minutes. Let cool and then transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Peel brussel sprout leaves (from fresh brussel sprouts) from bulbs. Sweat leaves in 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium low heat until golden brown, add shrimp. Cook 2 minutes. Add parsley and chives. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Season sole with salt and pepper. Steam sole for 5 minutes.
