Previously, on tastingmenu.wordpress.com –
* https://tastingmenu.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/savory-custards/
If memory serves, back in 1991, I was fortunate enough to visit Lucerne and walk the grounds of Tribshen. While visiting this Swiss city, I stayed at Hotel Wilden Mann (https://www.wilden-mann.ch/en). While there, I had the opportunity to enjoy, as I understand it, a dish particular to that region – poached bass in an herbed white wine cream sauce with lemon. I acquired a copy of the recipe from the hotel restaurant and made it a few times; but now apparently seem to have lost it due to various residence moves over the years. I recently came across the following recipe from the web which awoke a memory and seemed to be very much the recipe I was shown years ago (see http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/deluxe/Truite_%C3%80_La_Creme_Zugoise_(trout_in_herbed_cream_sauce).php#.X96yqxZOlPY ). A wiki mention regarding the cuisine/sauce can be found here: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoug . If memory serves, there was lemon juice in the dish, and perhaps this was a Lucerne twist on that recipe since the menu item was given additional name “Vierwaldstättersee” (see https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vierwaldst%C3%A4ttersee )
To make a half batch, the recipe would look like:
2 T butter
1 1/2 T shallots finely chopped or 3 tablespoons finely chopped scallions, white part only
1/2 t parsley finely chopped fresh (or maybe 1/8t + 1/32t dried parsley crumbled)
1/2 t chervil crumbled dry
1/2 t thyme crumbled dry
1/2 t tarragon crumbled dry
3/4 c white wine
4 4oz bass fillets
1/2 t salt
1/8 t white pepper
1 c cream
Upon closer inspection of the recipe ingredients, I suddenly realized that the herb components was none other than fines herb with a touch of thyme. That meant I was looking at 1 1/2 t fines herb and 1/2 t of thyme!
my current bottle of fines herb
But with my wife visting my in-laws, I now needed to scale down the recipe to:
2 t + 1/4 t shallots finely chopped or 3 tablespoons finely chopped scallions, white part only
1/4 t parsley finely chopped fresh (or maybe 1/8t + 1/32t dried parsley crumbled)
1/4 t chervil crumbled dry
1/4 t thyme crumbled dry
1/4 t tarragon crumbled dry
3/8 c white wine
2 4oz bass fillets
1/4 t salt
1/16 t white pepper
1/2 c cream
3/4 t lemon juice (guesstimate for the original Hotel Wilden Mann recipe)
and thus 3/4t fines herb + 1/4t thyme.
first herb on the label: parsley!
But my container of fines herb, on the back label, already said it contained dried parsley! So effectively, I was now looking at 1t fines herb and 1/4t of thyme!
So as part of my preparations, I needed to crumble/ground my dried herbs.
In addition to the fines herb, I would also need to grab my thyme
I figured it might be easier if I ground the thyme first before I took on the fines herb.
need to ground up that thyme
ground thyme
get that fines herb crumbled/ground
ready to combine those ground herbs
With the ground seasonings completed, I needed to turn my attention to the garnishes since the recipe didn’t specify any. Fortunately, my copy of “The Flavor Bible” suggested carrots and spinach might be a
To hand wash the baby spinach (it’s all thumbs under running water!)
starting the washing process
good match in the dish, given all the listed ingredients. So I would begin first with some baby spinach which I needed to hand wash (to be on the safe side)
and so it would turn out I’d have to wash about an ounce of spinach
..and that would turn out to be a cup of baby spinach
After the spinach was done, I turned my attention to the carrots, since it was just peeling and cutting in to bite size junks to be blanched.
just a medium to large carrot for the meal
“salt blanched carrots”
For the recipe instructions:
getting a shallot ready for the poaching liquid/sauce base
mincing up the required 2 1/4 teaspoons
In a heavy skillet cook the minced shallots in grapeseed oil. Stir fry for 5 minutes or until they are soft but
sauteeing the shallots
not brown. Then add in the herbs and pour in the wine (apparently a dry white Neuchâtel wine – may be Chateau d’Auvernier Blanc) along with 2 T lemon juice and mix. In this case, I wanted to add the wine first because I didn’t want to burn the crumbled herbs.
They didn’t have any Swiss wines at the store; but suggested this as the substitute
and while the microbatch called for 3/8c I poured 3/4c – a serendipitous mistake
adding the wine and cooking off the alcohol
Remove the skillet from the heat. My understanding was this was to create the poaching liquid for the bass fillets.
I needed to the get the skin off the branzino fillet
mixing the salt/white pepper mix to season the branzino fillet
At that point I could go ahead and season the fillets but with 12:1 salt/white pepper mix (thank you Chef Ron Siegel!) and then place them on top of the poaching liquid, cover and cook over 50% max heat for
adding the ground/crumbled herbs along with the seasoned branzino fillet
about 5 minutes. And here was the serendipitous thing – my AllClad pan was 10.5″. My 10.5″ AllClad pan was just big enough to fit that branzino fillet comfortably. There was no way I would have had enough poaching/steaming liquid if I had only used 3/8c of cup of that white wine. It was a fortunate mistake that I used 3/4c of that white wine. So I covered the pan and let it poach for about 4-5 minutes.
turn the heat down and let the fish poach in the shallots, wine and herbs
Now I would just need to get the fish out with a slotted spatula or spoon to a serving plate (and cover to keep warm), while I began to make my sauce.
out of the poach and need to cover with foil to keep warm
The sauce would now begin with the reduction of the poaching liquid on high heat until there was just a ‘film’ of the ‘broth’ in the pan.
cream to make the sauce
At that point, I’d have to lower the heat back to 50% max and go ahead and add the cream. The sauce
Adding the cream to the reduced poaching liquid
would take 5-10 minutes with a sporadic stirring. I would know when the sauce was done if it could nape the back of my spatula/spoon/whisk.
looks like the herbed cream sauce is just about ready
Now I just needed to add that Lucerne touch of the lemon juice to the sauce. And to that cream sauce I would add in the 3/4t of lemon juice.
In went the lemon juice with one final stir with the spatula. The sauce would be poured off into the ceramic cup next to the pan
Once I’d gotten the sauce out of the pan into the ceramic cup, I turned my attention to plating. Behind the fish I would mound a portion of the carrots and then the spinach – sort of like framing the fish as the lake and the vegetables as the shore/land upon the lake.
plating begins with the accompanying lemon herbed cream sauce ‘zugoise’
Then it was just a matter of dressing the plate and the fish with the sauce. The recipe itself called for spooning the sauce zugoise over the fish. As I dressed the dish, I counted out 4 tablespoons of the sauce to get the ‘effect’ I wanted.
ready to go out to the table
Branzino “Vierwaldstättersee” a la Hotel Wilden Mann with Lemon Sauce Zugoise
Upon trying this dish, it certainly brought back memories of that meal all those years ago. The richness of the cream sauce with the herbaceous flavors and aroma really echoed the experience of that meal. I think the 3/4t of lemon juice was the right amount. In years past when I occasionally tried to (inconsistently) produce this dish, the sauce curdled and broke – probably because I added far too much citrus/acidity to brighten the flavor. And I think I was right to add the lemon juice right at the very end of making the sauce.
The original recipe called for leaving the herbs IN the sauce. Applying what I’d learn from over the years I could perhaps refine this dish further by just taking the sauce off the heat, strain it, correct the seasoning (yes, I’d have to taste it) and THEN finish it with about 3/4 t lemon juice. And if I wanted to make this my own, perhaps I could add my own twist by substituting yuzu, sudachi or kabosu juice instead.
Who knows? Perhaps a holiday omakase meal with an “around the world” theme might make this recipe the fish course for the occasion.
Appendix
In regards to the 12:1 salt/white pepper mix, the math suggests the smallest possible mixture/yield is:
1/2 T salt (1 t+1/2 t)
1/8 t white pepper
OR possibly
3/4 t salt
1/16 t white pepper (if you have the spoon for it)
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