Making a Mousse of my Fish

French Cooking Term for the Day: Paupiette (po pee yet) Thin piece of meat or fish that is stuffed, rolled, tied and cooked.

Yesterday we prepped for fish. Salmon Mousseline rolled up in a Rock Cod Paupiette.  It's a poached fish dish that we served with sauteed asparagus and Quinoa with a Vin Blanc sauce.  Very classic French.  My sauce broke at the last possible moment, but Chef told me it was my best plating to date.  I'm not a fan of this type of poaching.  Plus, making the Salmon Mousseline is, well lets just say it's icky.  It tasted good though.

We also got to fabricate a Sea Bass.  It was my first attempt at filleting a whole round fish.  We had to scale it, or I guess it would be de-scale, anyway, remove the scales and take the guts out.  It's messy.  You finish and you're thinking, ok not too big a mess.  Then you look and you got fish scales on your face and fish guts on your shoes.  Plus I smell of fish.....still.

The windows were tight for these two entrees. I made the first with the Paupiette.  The Sea Bass came with a Sauce Choron. Which is a Bearnaise with tomato puree.  I couldn't get it to come together in time and missed only my second window since I started class. My second plate was 7 minutes late and it looked like I dropped it half way up to the Chef.  Plus, my tourned beets were undercooked and the fish was suppose to be skin side up, not skin side down.

So in one day I had my best plate and probably my worst plate.  I ate the sea bass (right side up), the quinoa and the rice pilaf.  It was still fun.