La mer. French sea dishes ( compilation)

Menu to navigate in the sea of French main dishes…

papillote de crystal saumon et pomélo (salmon papillote)
papillote de poisson (white fish)
papillote de poisson vanillée (vanilla fish)

Winter bouillabaisse
Summer bouillabaisse
aioli aux pommes de terre nouvelles (with cod fish)
bourride de limande et amaguri
fish cassoulet
choucroute de la mer (seafood Sauerkraut)

morue parmentière (cod and potatoes)
effeuillée de morue parmentière (cod and potato gratin)

calamars au vin (wine stewed calamari)
calamar à l’armoricaine (calamari stew)

carpaccio de daurade au pamplemousse (grapefruit marinated fish)
pétoncles à la nage (mini scallop soup)
ormeaux au beurre (buttered abalone)
salade tahitienne (Tahitian raw fish)
féroce d’avocat (avocado cod)

sole meunière
Mediterranean grilled fish
saumon vapeur aux algues (steamed salmon)
daurade flambée au pastis (anise baked fish)

Abalone four ways

Last year’s abalone/awabi/ormeau series :

cleaning and cutting abalone

ormeau au beurre (French style buttered abalone)

Korean abalone royal soup

Awabi to kimo (Japanese style)

Abalone ink pasta

Petit Jésus en brioche au safran, softy holiday pie


This dish screams : Christmas jingle bell…
It’s le Petit Jésus en culotte de velours (lit : Kid Jesus in velvet pants, which means a delight.)
Well, it’s le Petit Jésus in the sense of salami, dry sausage. A big one is prepared specially for Christmas Eve in Lyon and around, so it’s named le jésus .

gros jesus source wikipedia
Le « Jésus de Lyon » est le « cousin » de la rosette de Lyon. C’est un saucisson de grand diamètre, 10 cm. Il pèse environ 400 g et est réalisé à partir de viandes nobles triées et parées avec soin ; il fait l’objet d’une phase de maturation et d’affinage particulièrement importante pour la qualité gustative du produit fini. La matière première entrant dans la composition du produit est exclusivement de la viande et du gras dur de porc. Le Jésus de Lyon, pour être bien maintenu, est mis sous un filet qui donne une empreinte spécifique et une forme particulière de poire. Il doit sécher de longues semaines avant d’être vendu. On peut encore déguster un saucisson cru, ou à cuire. Truffé et pistaché le saucisson est bouilli avec des pommes de terre. Le saucisson brioché est un saucisson à cuire placé dans une pâte à brioche et cuit au four. Il se déguste sans accompagnement, coupé en tranches.
**** (they had not the English)****
The « Jésus of Lyon » is related to the “rosette de Lyon” sausage. It’s a large salami, 10 cm of diameter, about 400 g. It’s made of premium pork exclusively, specially aged during weeks. It is contained in a net that gives him a pear shape. It can be served raw, or cooked. With truffles and pistachio it’s boiled with potatoes. The “saucisson brioché” is baked in brioche dough. It’s eaten on its own, sliced.

I had a small one, a petit jésus. I baked it in buttery brioche.

OK, it looks like a yellow hippo… But the shape is secondary when it’s so yummy. The brioche is flavored with precious saffron.

This brandy tomato based sauce can be made more simply than the brown sauces. It’s even better.
Miam, miam…. it goes away very fast.

Ormeau au beurre (buttered abalone)

The beast is an abalone. It’s getting rare in Europe, a luxury these days. Today, I have won the lottery. Oh wait, let me check my ticket… nope, I haven’t bought any ticket.
It seems we have a few more of these shellfish left in Asia, particularly in South-Korea. Also, they farm them. So it’s not insanely expensive, it’s just expensive. And fishmongers sell everything in the last hour before closing the store, especially if they will close for the New-Year holiday. So I went there at the right time and yeah ! I CAUGHT A BARGAIN !

This Japanese blogger shows how to deal with them. I was totally clueless.

I link his video. He washes them with rough salt. The second part is about cooking them with their liver, see next post.
There will be 3 other posts about abalone (ormeau, awabi…) in the next days :

Korean abalone royal soup

Awabi to kimo (Japanese style)

Abalone ink pasta

So I cut them as the Japanese guy did. And I prepared one French style. I clarified butter (melt it in a frying pan, skimmed the white bits, let dry a bit on low it). And I added pan-fried the abalone with a little sea salt. Just a little black pepper on top.