Pamplemousse and Poisson en Papillote: Part 1

Dinner was at Chez Michele this weekend and I was craving cod (Cabillaud) and grapefruits. Cod because the market offerings were plump and sea-scented and grapefruits because of a compliment to a chef. Chef Gilles Poyac, Chef de Cuisine for the French Senate and winner of the Best Craftsman of France 2000, prepared a wonderful contemporary meal at Le Cordon Bleu where he used a grapefruit vinegar reduction (a gastrique). After his presentation, I told him in French how much I enjoyed the food and the grapefruit gastrique and he gave me a bottle as a gift (maybe I actually told him I enjoyed him?), after all my French does often go quite wrong. Anyway, I promised him I would use the gastrique during the weekend dinner party.

I created 2 of the 5 course dishes to include grapefruits. The grapefruits at the market were a plump, glowing bunch with a familiar look; yes, the label was Le Floride. So I purchased a couple of these exotic imported fruits and cut away the rind and then sliced some wedges. Half of the wedges were sautéed in a Spanish olive oil (fruity) and the other half were for the fish.

The Salad:
Salad greens or a loose leaf head lettuce (I used a French variety Batavia)
Grapefruit slices caramelized in hot olive oil for 1-2 minutes
Walnuts toasted or spiced (see my recipe below)
Reggiano parmesan sliced thin.

Vinaigrette Recipe:
Grapefruit gastrique, Olive oil (I used Spanish), fine minced shallots, sea salt, ground pepper

Grapefruit Gastrique: gastriques are basically vinegar, fruit or fruit juice and sugar if necessary (depends on the sugar level of the fruit and the acidity of the vinegar). I’ve not made a gastrique with grapefruit but here’s what I did with oranges recently:

Juice of 2 large oranges and equal amount of red-wine vinegar plus 2 Tablespoons of sugar.

Toasted Spicy Walnuts:
I coated my nuts with powdered cinnamon and chili plus some sea salt and a tiny bit of fresh ground pepper, then toasted them in a skillet for a few minutes, added some honey (just a fast drizzle over all the nuts), continued heating for a few minutes, added a hint of water and stirred to make sure nuts were evenly seasoned, baked at 100C or 212F until less sticky and then I let them air dry.

The Cod in Papillote is covered in the next blog posting. Picture compliments of M.Henriot photographer.