Separating Oil and Water

The morning started with some interesting ideas revolving around veal tartar. Unfortunately, the execution of these ideas will take time and, in turn, will not be usable for this evening’s menu. However, once I got the parts in motion for tomorrow’s veal dish, I was able to concentrate on a new approach to poaching fish and other ingredients. We used the same concept of broth making as we did with our bubble tea. In fact, the broth is nearly identical except that today we have added soy sauce since we were not going to be floating roe in it. The tea broth, thickened slightly with gellan, plays two roles in the dish. First of all, we are able to poach monkfish, or other proteins, gently in the broth, and the slight viscosity of the broth helps keep the juices in the fish rather than transferring into the broth. Also, the broth slightly glazes and imparts a delicate flavor to the fish. Secondly, we are able to use the warm tea broth to capture and spread the flavors of our sweet and sour squash juice mixed with pumpkin seed oil. When the warm tea broth is poured around the fish, the squash juice mixes with the tea and the pumpkin seed oil floats in little droplets around the fish rather than pooling on the top of the broth. Pretty neat, and a great way to integrate and still separate flavors.