Abalone is the emblematic shellfish of the Emerald Coast. In grows on
on a certain type of rock, facing the sea, washed by the waves, in areas where seaweed - here again, a specific type - grows, providing its food. To achieve maximum flavour, it needs cold water; therefore, it's not eaten during the summer months. In the autumn it has the intense taste and scent of the deep waters.
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 large abalones or 12 medium - 100 g semi-dried white beans (fresh cocos cancalais, if possible) (4 oz) - 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley - 1 medium carrot - 1 bunch "bricolins" or "choux à vache" (related to broccoli) - 3 garlic cloves - 1 shallot - 1 sheet dried nori (seaweed) - 100 ml chicken stock (4 oz)
200 ml cider vinegar (6 oz) - 500 ml coteaux du Layon wine (16 oz) - Fleur de sel and freshly ground pepper - 100 g butter (4 oz) - 3 mushrooms - 500 ml vegetable oil (16 oz) - Pork rind - Thyme
- easy, with just a little patience and care.
3 days ahead. How to tenderise abalone? As soon as they leave the water,
pack them into a basket and leave them for 48 hours on the bottom shelf of
the refrigerator, where they will weaken. Shell them while their temperature
is between 3 and 5 degrees C, remove the beards (keep the barbels) and rub
them under running water to remove any black patches. Return them to the
refrigerator on a damp cloth for 24 hours. Just before cooking the abalones,
put on pair of gloves and massage them gently.
Basic preparation
A little more than an hour beforehand, start by preparing an abalone stock. Peel and dice the shallot. Wash the mushrooms and slice them thinly. Roast two garlic cloves with a little oil in a hot oven. They are cooked when the tip of a knife pierces them easily. Chop half the stalks of the bunch of parsley. Dice the equivalent of 2 tbsp of nori. Saute the abalone barbels, which you have washed and dried, in butter. Add the shallot, then the mushrooms. Deglaze with the wine, add a cooked garlic clove, the parsley stems and the nori, then wet with the chicken stock. Simmer for 1 hour then strain through a fine strainer, pressing to extract the juice. You'll have a very aromatic abalone stock.
Meanwhile: shell the semi-dried beans, place them in cold, unsalted water and bring to a boil, then lower the heat. Halfway through the cooking (about 20-25 minutes), add the carrot, which you have finely diced, the parsley stems (to be removed later), a little thyme, and perhaps, according to taste, a small piece of pork rind. Simmer gently, checking from time to time. Add a little water if necessary. The beans should be tender but above all not mushy; add salt at the end. Set aside the cooked beans.
Wash 20 small sprigs of parsley and dry them in a tea towel. In a small saucepan, heat the oil and drop in one leaf as a test. If it sizzles, the oil is at the right temperature. Add, in two batches, all the leaves, then remove them immediately using a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels and set aside.
Chop the rest of the parsley.
Cook the bricolin leaves in boiling salted water, uncovered, then refresh them in cold water. They will be reheated in a little cooking water with a knob of butter.
Last minute
Heat the beans in their cooking liquid. Heat 4 pretty abalone shells in a warm oven (100 C). Heat the abalone stock which you prepared in advance and finish it with 50 g (2 oz) butter.
In a non-stick frying pan, quickly sear the abalones for 1 minute on each side, until golden. Remove from the pan and let them rest for 15 minutes in a warm place to relax the flesh. Deglaze the cooking pan with the warmed abalone stock, to which you can add a few drops of cider vinegar. Strain the stock through a fine strainer. Slice the abalones, then reassemble them.
On each plate, place a warm shell and half-fill it with beans. Place a few leaves of bricolin on one side, and the abalone slices overlapping them. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, top with the sauce, and finish with a few leaves of fried parsley.
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© Olivier Roellinger - Maisons de Bricourt.
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