Dinner · 70 min · french

Quenelles de Brochet

A French dinner built around pike fillets and butter — on the table in 70 minutes.

✓ USDA-verified nutrition data

Ingredients

• 1 lb Pike fillets
• 6 tbsp Butter
• 1/2 cup Flour
• 4 Eggs
• 2 cups Heavy cream
• 2 cups Lobster bisque
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg

Steps

1. Make a panade: melt half the butter, stir in the flour 2 minutes, then whisk in a cup of water until smooth; cool completely.
2. Grind the pike to a fine paste — twice through the fine die, or blitzed silky in a processor — then beat in the cold panade.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the nutmeg and salt; the forcemeat should be smooth, pale, and pipeable.
4. Shape quenelles with two hot spoons into elegant ovals and poach in barely simmering salted water 8 minutes until they float and firm.
5. Warm the lobster bisque with the cream into a sauce Nantua; it should be the color of a Provençal sunset.
6. Nestle the quenelles in a buttered gratin dish, nap with the sauce, and bake at 400°F for 12 minutes until puffed and golden.
7. Serve immediately — quenelles deflate as they cool, and their soufflé-like lift is half the pleasure.

Build my plan — free

← All recipes