“Receita 100 anos Vatel by Justa Nobre”
Ingredients (4 people) – for the fish:
4 sea bass fillets with 150 g each;
200 g vatel’s sea salt special grills and barbecue;
10 g fresh thyme leaves
For the sauce:
sea bass bones and head;
1 l water;
150 g leek;
100 g onion;
10 g garlic;
150 g fennel root;
10 g grated fresh ginger;
1 dl olive oil;
2,5 dl rosé wine;
as desired vatel’s sea salt and pepper;
100 g butter;
2 dl cream
For sweet potato: 500 g aljezur sweet potato; 150 g vatel’s sea salt
For shallots: 3 shallots per person; 1 dl olive oil; 2 thyme bunches; as desired vatel’s sea salt and pepper
For the vegetables ‘trouxa’: 7 cm leeks strip; 7 cm carrot strip; 7 cm courgette strip; 2 7 cm green asparagus
Take a saucepan with 1dl of olive oil, add 100g of onion, 150g of leek, 150g of fennel, 10g of garlic and 10g of freshly grated ginger. Let it sweat. Add the bones and the head of the sea bass cut in half, season with vatel’s sea salt and pepper, cover the pan and let it stew a little. Add 2.5dl of rosé wine and cook for 8 minutes. Then add 1l of water and cook until the broth has halved. Strain the broth, and return to the heat in a clean pan. When boiling add 100g of butter and 2dl of cream. Beat with a whisker until thick and shiny.
In the meantime, prepare 500g of sweet potatoes from aljezur, washing them and taking them to the oven to bake sprinkled with vatel’s sea salt at 160c. Allow to cool slightly and cut them into thick slices with the skin, place in a pan greased with oil, drizzle with a little more oil on top and return to the oven until crispy. When removing from the oven, sprinkle with vatel’s sea salt. Peel the 3 shallots and sauté with olive oil and 2 thyme bunches, seasoning with vatel’s sea salt and pepper.
Then add the vegetables (7cm of leek, carrot and courgette and 2 green asparagus) and make a ‘trouxa’ (bundle) that squeezes in half with a strip of blanched leeks. When serving, bake the bundle of vegetables in the vegetable broth flavoured with pepper and a peel of fresh ginger.
Mix vatel’s sea salt special grills and barbecue with the thyme leaves. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with the salt mixture and sprinkle with a little water. Put it on the stove and when the salt is hot and getting hard, put the fillets of sea bass on top, first with the skin down for 5 minutes, then turn the fish over and cook another 5 minutes.
Serve the fish with sautéed potatoes, shallots, a bundle of vegetables and a spoonful of sauce around it.
