Dorade royale with a beurre blanc sauce

Hopefully you have read my summer holiday special edition and you will recall the beurre blanc sauce we had at a restaurant in Granville.

Now I have always avoided trying to make it myself because all the books and the celeb chefs bang on about how difficult it is and how it is very unstable,  and if it cracks blah de blah.  However having tasted the incredibly buttery, unctious sauce at said restaurant and compared it with the bland commercial stuff we have bought in the past, I decided that I would have a go at making it myself.

Whist on holiday we squandered 4 euros on 2 huge fish which the french call dorade royale and which I think is called john dory or st peters fish, all of which could be wrong because the french have different names for fish and sometimes there is no english equivalent.  these were gutted by my able assistant and wife and cooked on the george.  I looked at an awful lot of recipes but finally went for my hero of fish Sir Rick Stein, yes I know he isnt a Sir but one day.

We had new pots straight out of a neighbours garden, she gave us them ok, we have to go back because she has a ton of blackcurrants and redcurrants which will just rot on the vine otherwise, mmm pretend ribena.

Tinned french peas are not my favourite but that is all we had.  So to the sauce.  I have to say I was a little nervous about this what with all the dire warnings of disaster but in the back of my mind I could hear Rick spurring me on, feel the sauce I heard him say in a obi wan kenobi type voice.

So as there are only 2 of us I did half the recipe, a shallot chopped finely, 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of dry white wine, I used chardonnay because we had a drop left in a box.  3 tablespoons of water or fish stock, yeah right like I have fish stock, 2 tablespoons double cream, does not exist in france so left out, 3 ounces of unsalted butter, I used salted.  Put the shallots, white wine, white wine vinegar and water in a small saucepan and heat till boiling than simmer until nearly all the liquid has evaporated at this point you would add the cream and reduce again, then remove the pan from the heat and whisk the butter in a bit at a time until it is all amalgamated.  Unbelievably it worked, it was perhaps not up to the restaurant standard but it beat the commercial stuff into a cocked hat whatever that means.  It was light and er well buttery with perhaps the shallots being a bit crunchier than they should have been, but hey I loved it and so did my wife.  It melted on the potatoes and added brilliantly to the big white chunky fishes flavour.  So to finish off here is a photo and if you have never made it before I really urge you to give it a try with a decent quality fish.

okay I forgot about the photo until we were half way through, sorry