Save
First, a premise: when and if you decide to serve an entirely fish-based dinner, it’s crucial to ask yourself one important question. «Can I trust my supplier to provide me with high-quality fish for my guests?» If the answer is yes, only then can you begin your preparations.
Another useful suggestion, this time of a culinary nature: prepare a fish broth and keep it on the stovetop for the entire length of your dinner. Prepare it by including all the fish scraps and adding to a pot filled with water, paprika, scallion and a few vegetables of your liking. Let it boil and skim off the foam, continuing to cook it for an hour. You can keep adding the scraps as you cook, and use the precious liquid to dilute sauces and add flavorus to your fish dishes. Before using it, strain through a sieve and if there is some leftover, you can freeze it and use it for a future seafood risotto.
The seafood menu that we’re proposing here opens with a salad based on cod, a kind of fish that warrants an explanation: when fresh, it’s called “cod”, when dried it’s called “stockfish”, and it also can often be found cured in salt. This antipasto should be served in small portions, because the following pasta course (remember, al dente, please!), topped with squid, will be quite filling.
Granted, biting into the small pouch of squid ink may not be pleasant for those whose teeth turn black at the table, but this dish is so delicious that one can forgive small aesthetic blights. The less courageous cooks can make use of the squid ink sold separately in their own packaging and ready for use, but naturally, the taste of the dish will be different.
Following the pasta, a sumptuous sea bass dish by the Michelin-starred chef Mauro Colagreco. You can try to cook it at home, but if you’d like to enjoy the original version, you’ll have to take a trip to Mentone, in the South of France, where Colagreco’s restaurant, Mirazur, is located.
As for dessert, we’re suggesting a touch of pure American style with a carrot and almond cake. To delight your guests, try serving it with a spoonful of freshly whipped cream (no spray can, please!), lightly flavoured with powdered sugar and a pinch of cinnamon, or even a touch of powdered star anise.
MENU
Seabass celeriac, purée, wild sorrel and smoked sauce with shellfish
