Ballotines of perch with cauliflower and vegetables

Saint-Omer, a land of wonder for the taste buds! Here’s a recipe from Gauthier Minque, of the “Harde de saveurs” restaurant in Saint-Omer: Ballotines of perch and its declination of cauliflower and baby vegetables.

Harde de saveurs

Gauthier Minque opened his semi-gastronomic restaurant, “Harde de saveurs”, at the end of 2018 in Saint-Omer. For this former trader who always dreamed of making cooking his career, “the important thing is to innovate”. He changes his menu every 10 days on average. “After that, I get bored; I can’t work with the same products for 2 weeks.”

However, there’s one rule this hunter never breaks: serve local produce. “My vegetables like carrots and cauliflower come from Tilques, they’re really local products. My meats are always French, and I prefer northern breeds. There’s enough good meat in the Pas de Calais not to have to go to the other end of France to find it”.

And for fish, it’s the same. The fishing season has just opened, so Gauthier can have fun with fish from local rivers or the marsh. Precisely, he offers us a recipe based on perch…

Ingredients

for 4 pers.

CAULIFLOWER CREAM

White cauliflower

Romanesco cabbage

1 vanilla bean

Milk

Cream

VEGETABLES

Carrots

Butter

Snow peas

Beans

Betterave

THE FISH

Perch (160g/person)

Recipe

Step 1:

Cauliflower CREAM

Trim the cauliflower, keeping only the small florets, above all remove the branches well so that it is not bitter
Cook the cauliflower sprouts in milk
Let cool then add the cream
Add the vanilla pod opened in 2 while cooking
Mix the whole in a blender
Pass through a sieve or chinois to remove the fibres

Step 2:

VEGETABLES

Cook greens the English way, i.e. in butter
Stop cooking with a tub of water filled with ice cubes to bring up the chlorophyll and preserve the green color of the vegetables
Slice the beet with a mandolin
Mix it with a vinegar syrup with spirit vinegar, balsamic vinegar and sugar
Cook the carrots once in water, then pan-fry in butter and deglaze with water or stock
Cook a cabbage sous-vide and grate it over the cauliflower cream once the plate is set

Step 3:

FISH

Roll the perch fillets into ballottines in transparent cling film
Bake at 53-55 degrees, at least one hour
Make a foamy butter by pan-frying a large slice of butter over spices to taste (preferably cumin or curry)
When the butter starts to change color, spoon some over the fish
Cover the ballottines with garlic shoots to bring up the flavor of the perch
Set out and enjoy!