What did you eat last night for dinner?

Is that first plate compressed heirloom tomato, crab, avocado, and chervil?

Jesus man I can't believe you don't do this professionally.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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Is that first plate compressed heirloom tomato, crab, avocado, and chervil?

Jesus man I can't believe you don't do this professionally.
Almost. It's pressed, not compressed. You take the meat of the tomato off in one piece, then press it between two sheets. Inside is crab and lettuce, then avocado, apple and watercress, then crab and lettuce again. It's very good, but it takes ******* forever to do.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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Almost. It's pressed, not compressed. You take the meat of the tomato off in one piece, then press it between two sheets. Inside is crab and lettuce, then avocado, apple and watercress, then crab and lettuce again. It's very good, but it takes ******* forever to do.
And what is the sauce/outer garnish? Tomato water and avocado puree? I hope you take no offense, but when we get our first shipment of local tomatoes in, I'm putting this on the menu as a special.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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And what is the sauce/outer garnish? Tomato water and avocado puree? I hope you take no offense, but when we get our first shipment of local tomatoes in, I'm putting this on the menu as a special.
Well, I didn't make it up, but if you want the recipe, I will forward it along. Sauce is basically the inner ribs of the tomatoes seeded and pureed with sherry vinegar, a little tomato paste, a little tabasco and olive oil. The dots are mayo mixed with chlorophyll.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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Well, I didn't make it up, but if you want the recipe, I will forward it along. Sauce is basically the inner ribs of the tomatoes seeded and pureed with sherry vinegar, a little tomato paste, a little tabasco and olive oil. The dots are mayo mixed with chlorophyll.

Please.

Originally Posted by kwilkinson

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Jesus man I can't believe you don't do this professionally.

No kidding. Those plates are fabulous.

Originally Posted by foodguy

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i might try beating an egg into the farce to bind it just a little.

not serious?

Originally Posted by iammatt

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I do not believe this to be correct.

one gazillion.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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Well, I didn't make it up, but if you want the recipe, I will forward it along. Sauce is basically the inner ribs of the tomatoes seeded and pureed with sherry vinegar, a little tomato paste, a little tabasco and olive oil. The dots are mayo mixed with chlorophyll.

this makes me giggle

Originally Posted by KJT

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Looks amazing. What is the sauce and what is behind the scallops?
That is a port and sherry vinegar reduction with butter. It came out perfect. I combined the butter without stirring, but by shaking the pan, so it retained a mirror like gloss without becoming cloudy. And those are king oyster mushrooms, not scallops.

Originally Posted by Rambo

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MM - It might not be as pretty, but if you score the skin it will keep the fish from buckling up like that.
I will try scoring next time. I basically pressed it flat once I placed it in the pan with a fish spatula. It also might appear more buckled than it really is because one side of the fillet is thicker than the other.

Originally Posted by Manton

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mm, there are things I would have done differently, but as ever, it's very pretty, and the fish looks great.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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You need to get cleaner with your filleting, I think, mm.
Yes. This was my first time filleting a whole fish, that hadn't already been scaled, and gutted. I think I'll get better as I gain more experience, although I did get 2 nice filets off of the fish, with only leaving a minute portion of flesh on the bone. If you have any good source for learning the skills of cleaning, gutting, deboning, and filleting, please advise. I'm going to ask the fishmonger I go to for a demonstration next time.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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This, I love.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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Almost. It's pressed, not compressed. You take the meat of the tomato off in one piece, then press it between two sheets. Inside is crab and lettuce, then avocado, apple and watercress, then crab and lettuce again. It's very good, but it takes ******* forever to do.
But, don't you dislike avocado?

scoring fish skin should be treated with caution. the skin is very thin, the meat is soft, and it's easy to hack the stuff to hell if you don't have a light, light touch. You want your knife to be as sharp as a lightsaber. I personally never bother to do it. The spatula press works fine. You don't need a perfectly flat surface. You are not going to do carpentry on the top of the fish.

As for fileting, the only way to learn is to practice. Just buy a whole fish every time you make fish and use the bones/heads for stock. or you can buy a ton of cheap fish like porgies and filet them all, then invite over everyone you know for a fish fry.

Originally Posted by Manton

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As for fileting, the only way to learn is to practice. Just buy a whole fish every time you make fish and use the bones/heads for stock. or you can buy a ton of cheap fish like porgies and filet them all, then invite over everyone you know for a fish fry.
This. Also, and I think this goes with all butchery, you need to understand the bone structure of the animal. Touch the fish, feel where bones stop and start. Where the the rib bones stop, both vertically and horizontally? Get acquainted with it. It makes the learning curve faster. Oh, there is no glory in gutting and scaling fish. Have this done for you.

They told us in school that the guts should come out immediately because as soon as the fish dies, the acids/enzymes/whatever in the guts start to eat away at and generally **** up the meat. So, most fish you buy even whole will already be gutted, at least around here. However, they will not be scaled.

Though I recently bought a whole bass that was not gutted and I was somewhat surprised by that.

Also, they will not gut whole flat fish, unless they take the head off too, because the guts and the head are kind of a package. It doesn't matter if the guts are still in a flat fish because they don't touch the filets.

You don't want to use the guts for stock, and you have to cut the gills out of the head because they are nasty. But everything else is fair game. However some say you are supposed to remove the eyes but I don't and I don't think it really matters.

According to Solzhenitsyn, the eyes are delicious, or at least nutritious.

Originally Posted by Manton

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scoring fish skin should be treated with caution. the skin is very thin, the meat is soft, and it's easy to hack the stuff to hell if you don't have a light, light touch. You want your knife to be as sharp as a lightsaber. I personally never bother to do it. The spatula press works fine. You don't need a perfectly flat surface. You are not going to do carpentry on the top of the fish.

I never bothered with scoring the skin, anyway (unless I am roasting or grilling a whole fish). I never saw the point.

As for fileting, the only way to learn is to practice. Just buy a whole fish every time you make fish and use the bones/heads for stock. or you can buy a ton of cheap fish like porgies and filet them all, then invite over everyone you know for a fish fry.

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Whenever I can, I always buy my fish whole.

Originally Posted by iammatt

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This. Also, and I think this goes with all butchery, you need to understand the bone structure of the animal. Touch the fish, feel where bones stop and start. Where the the rib bones stop, both vertically and horizontally? Get acquainted with it. It makes the learning curve faster.

Exactly. I noticed myself instinctively feeling the fish for where the bones started and stopped, and which way they ran. It will just take a bit of time and practice, as Manton said.

Oh, there is no glory in gutting and scaling fish. Have this done for you.

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Yup. I just wanted to try it to see what it is all about. I'll leave that part to them next time, for sure.