Basic skill: Buerre manie

When I pan grill a couple fillets of nice fresh fish - in this case, some Pacific Cod that I brought home from Costco today - I want a lovely, velvety yet light sauce to showcase the texture and flavor. The boiled, buttered and herbed new potatoes also like bathing in it, too.

The key to a creamy, quick sauce like this is so simple. Buerre manie - “Burr Man-yea”. This is a classic French technique where you simply cream together plain, all-purpose flour with butter - or the butter/canola oil spread that I keep for everyday use. All you want is to do is soften stick butter. Don’t melt it.

I marinated the cod steaks in a pureed mixture of onion, parsley stems, a bit of grapeseed oil, thyme and a bit of salt and pepper. My petite food processor is simply brilliant for quick jobs like this, making a marinade in a couple of minutes. Just add about half an onion, a couple of shallots (if you had them, which I always do), a splash of grapeseed oil, the stems only from flat leaf parsley, salt and a bit of ground pepper.

Now I can hear you thinking “why in the world is she using the stems of parsley?” In French cuisine, nothing goes to waste - like the stems, and the color is important. Not green. It would be very green if you used the leaves, but using just the stems, you get the flavor without the color. Grapeseed oil is a must for the neutral flavor. Cod is delicate and you don’t want to overpower it, and anyway fancy olive oil is expensive and wasted in a preparation like this.

Marinate the fish in this onion mixture, covered in the refrigerator, for about an hour. Now make your Buerre Manie. Combine equal portions - about two to three tablespoons each - flour and butter. Cream them together with a fork. Set aside.

You might notice the grilled ‘Campari’ tomatoes from Costco. I just lightly coat them in oil, sprinkle a little sea salt and pepper on them, and grill them in my ‘speed oven’ ( under the broiler would work well, too) until they collapse and brown on the tops. This makes a really healthy, light accompaniment. See my post on how to grill tomatoes.

Meanwhile, I set the itty-bitty potatoes to boiling in salted water. When they got fork tender, I drained them, added some butter and chopped fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Cover until ready to serve.

In a heated, non-stick sauté pan, add about 4 tablespoons of neutral flavored oil, and when it’s hot, add the fish - having scraped off most of the onion marinade (reserve that! You’ll use it with the Buerre manie!).

Sauté the fish for about three to four minutes on the first side, and gently turn it. After it’s cooked a couple minutes more, add about 1/2 cup of white wine. As it’s happily bubbling, add the Buerre Manie to the reserved onion marinade, then add that around in the pan. Take a fork and gently stir it into the wine. Cover with a lid, with the heat on medium-low, for about five to eight minutes - or until the fish is done through and flakes easily, and the sauce is thickened.

Adjust salt and pepper. Plate. Garnish with chopped fresh flat leaf parsley. Serve.

The Buerre Manie can be made in larger quantities, and kept in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, tightly covered. Use it in any preparation where you want to quick sauce - such as with Dijon mustard with fish, or lemon and capers for fish or poultry. It can even be used in meat drippings for beef and pork. Experiment with combining it with different fresh herbs, too. It’s amazing with fresh lemon juice or wine and Tarragon over fish, or even eggs.

See what Buerre Manie can do for you. It can take a weeknight meal and make it into haute cuisine.

-maven

Healthy nut-based sauce of Catalan, Spain: Romesco

Throughout the Mediterranean, nut-based sauces are staples of traditional cuisines. All are treasured for their rich flavors, ease of preparation, and multiple uses. In their many guises, they exemplify many of the healthful plant-based components of the Mediterranean diet. “Nut-based sauces are incredibly flavorful and healthful,” says Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RD, program director of strategic initiatives at CIA Greystone and herself a registered dietitian. “as they are made with ingredients with proven health benefits, such as nuts, herbs, vegetables, and olive oil.”

Variations of Mediterranean nut-based sauces abound. Traditional pesto alla Genovese uses pine nuts or walnuts to balance the intense flavor of crushed basil. A Sicilian version, called pesto alla Trapanese, uses almonds and adds vine-ripened tomatoes. Another classic Italian sauce, salsa di noce, from the northern coastal region of Liguria, combines walnuts with garlic, olive oil, marjoram, and breadcrumbs.

“And then there’s the classic Spanish sauce called romesco, from the Catalan region of Spain,” notes CIA Greystone chef-instructor Bill Briwa. “Romesco takes many of the same basic ingredients—ground nuts, garlic, and olive oil—and adds the the flavors of sweet, savory, and hot peppers.”

These rich, savory nut-based sauces are impressive from a culinary, nutritional and economical standpoint. They make other health-promoting foods, like vegetables and seafood, taste better, as anyone who has dipped a grilled spear of asparagus in romesco sauce can attest. And since they have their origins in the humble cuisines of the Mediterranean, they are typically made from affordable ingredients that are readily available.

Fresh Pikkin's market and Cajun Power sauces

I found a wonderful permanent farmers market, called Fresh Pikkin’s in Lafayette the other day. It is just that, the freshest of fresh ‘pikkin’s’ from local growers, piled high into bins, arranged in the freezers and stacked on the rough hewn wooden shelves.

If I were driving through town, without a kitchen or a pot to cook in, I’d be a bit depressed - surrounded by foodie riches without a means to use them. But, in this case, I had Natacha’s kitchen.

Fresh Pikkin’s is a chain of two stores - in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. They come in far cheaper and better than the grocery stores, by buying direct from the grower, keeping the overhead low (rough decor) and frankly, you’d better carry cash as they don’t take plastic. But it’s all worth it.

I wish we had a Fresh Pikkin’s here in Reno.

The Fresh Pikkin’s market on Kalish Saloom, Lafayette, Louisiana.

We cruised through here a couple of times, and found one of the best damn cantaloupes either of us had ever ‘wrapped a lip around’ (as my late father used to say). This melon was so sweet, so fragrant, that when I cut into it, I told Natacha that we were going to have more than a mere slice. I halved it, filled the small seed cavity with fruit, placed some cold roast chicken on the side and hollered “lunch”.

The flavor was in the OMG region of delight.

The other big find at Fresh Pikkin’s is the Cajun Power line of truly authentic sauces that really make cooking Cajun a breeze. These are hearty simmer sauces; you add the meat, fish, shellfish of your choice.

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Rhubarb sauce for fish:Taking rhubarb to a new level

We’ve got a bumper crop of rhubarb this year, at Rancho Maven. This means we try it in everything, and it makes an awesome sauce for fish.

I went out into the garden and started collecting five to six fresh stalks of the green rhubarb (saving the fat red for dessert dishes) and some herbs ….

Oregano, flat leaf Italian parsley, basil … with some minced fresh garlic and chopped scallions from the fridge, then a couple ribs of chopped celery.

Saute all in olive oil, then add about one and a half cups water, some chicken stock base, a bay leaf, some ground celery seed, salt and ground pepper … and wait for it, a couple of anchovy fillets, chopped cornichon pickles with a splash of the juice. You’re gonna do a braise technique here. Bring it to a boil, stir, put a lid on it, reduce the heat and simmer until the rhubarb has ‘fallen apart’. Stir thoroughly to make it creamy. Add some butter. Stir again. Adjust salt to taste. Takes all of about 15 minutes. Makes about one and a half cups of thick, rich sauce. Would also be great on chicken, or just with a vegetarian rice.

Butter makes everything better.

We grilled some rockfish, and put this sauce on one side, and some of Natacha’s “bitter leaf” African sauce on the other. One bite of this, one bite of that.

It was AWESOME.

Serve with a bit of rice, a green salad and fruit.

Voila!