Red Mullet with a Saffron and Asparagus Sauce

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Red Mullet with a Saffron and Asparagus Sauce

Red Mullet with a Saffron and Asparagus Sauce

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Introduction

Cooking food by immersing it in a sauce at a controlled temperature enables us to obtain dishes full of flavour with very precise points of doneness. In this way we can cook with all the taste we want to impart to the dish but with precise control of the entire process. In this case, we have adapted a classical French cuisine combination, mussels and saffron, to a fish and saffron stock with asparagus, creating a sauce that offers an ideal cooking medium for the delicate red mullet.

Ingredients

4 large red mullets, deboned
1 stick of celery
1 leek
1 onion
1 carrot
8 asparagus spears
1 glass of Fino sherry
50 g olive oil
10 g cornflour
200 g of brine (100 g of salt per litre of water)
Nasturtium flowers and leaves
1 g saffron
1 spring onion
1 l water

What you need

Cooktop with temperature control

Preparation

"Fumet" (fish stock)
Saffron sauce
Cooking of the red mullet

General Information

60ºC / 5min.
Fish
4 servings

Preparation

"Fumet" (fish stock)
Saffron sauce
Cooking of the red mullet

Step 1

Chop the soft part of the asparagus spears into 1 cm lengthwise cuts reserving the intact spear tips (for the sauce), and the woody stem part for the stock. Cut the vegetables (celery, leek, onion and carrot) into mirepoix.

Step 2

Put all the mullet bones and heads into a pot with a litre of cold water and cook for 20 minutes with the vegetable mirepoix and the asparagus spear tips. Strain and reserve the resulting stock.

Step 1

Finely brunoise-cut the onion. Gently sauté the spring onion with olive oil on a medium heat until cooked.

Step 2

Dry the saffron in the oven at 180ºC for 30 seconds.

Step 3

Add the chopped asparagus spears and tips to the cooked onion and sauté for 1 minute.

Step 4

Add the Sherry, leave to reduce and add ½ litre of fish stock leaving it to cook on a low heat for around 7 minutes. Add the toasted saffron to the sauce.

Step 5

Dilute the cornflour with a few drops of water or fish stock.

Step 6

Once the 7 minutes have passed, add the dry saffron and the diluted cornflour to the sauce. Move the pot gently until the texture is dense but not heavy. Add salt to taste and leave to cool until it reaches 60ºC.

Step 1

Salt the red mullet pieces, add them to the saffron sauce and cook at 60°C for 5 minutes.

Step 2

Serve decorated with the nasturtium flowers and leaves.