The table of old times,
The Book of Recipes
Turbot Cream Gratin
Period: Belle Époque / Category: dish
Auguste Escoffier, The culinary guide
Ingredients
for 6 persons :
1.2 kg of filleted turbot
1 kg of potatoes (Bintje or Agria or Mona Lisa variety)
90 + 40 gr of butter
40 g of flour
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
50 cl of ½ skimmed milk
4 egg yolks
50 g grated Gruyere cheese
50 g grated parmesan
Salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste
The preparation
1- Steam the turbot fillets for 20 minutes, cut them into pieces and set aside.
2- Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. Cook them in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 20 minutes, until tender.
3- Drain the potatoes and pass them through a potato masher to obtain a smooth puree. You can also use a vegetable mill for a finer result. Add 80 grams of butter cut into small pieces to the hot puree and mix well until melted and well incorporated. Allow the puree to cool slightly.
4- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
5- Use 10 grams of butter to butter a dish (Ø 30 cm) suitable for baking in the oven.
6- Add 3 egg yolks (one by one) to the potato preparation, mixing well between each addition.
Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of grated nutmeg. Place the mixture thus obtained in a piping bag fitted with a fluted nozzle and form small piles of puree around the circumference of the dish, leaving space in the center for the fish.
8- Prepare the Mornay sauce: melt 40 g of butter in a saucepan. Add 40 g of flour all at once and mix with a whisk over low heat until you obtain a white roux. Remove from the heat and slowly add the milk, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Add salt and return to low heat to thicken the sauce. Transfer the preparation to a salad bowl. Add a pinch of nutmeg. Incorporate 1 egg yolk and the grated cheese (reserving 3 tablespoons for gratinating), then mix to thoroughly incorporate the cheese.
9- Cover the bottom of the dish with the sauce, in the center, and place the fish there. Coat the fish with the sauce and sprinkle with the reserved grated cheese.
10- Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes to ensure the gratin forms on the fish and the duchess apple border browns.
Annotations
This recipe is indeed part of Auguste Escoffier's culinary guide, but it should be noted that the origin of Mornay sauce made its appearance in the Paris of Charles X thanks to the famous Parisian restaurant Le Grand Véfour, located under the arcades of the Palais -Royal. It is there that the name Mornay was associated with two particularly elegant figures: the Marquis de Mornay and his brother, Count Charles Léonce de Mornay.
