That's How It Happened

Cooking With Keller
While in Barcelona I saw the El Bulli books, a 3 volume, 360 Euro celebration of 22 years of Ferran Adria's cooking. It inspired me to get back in the kitchen, and really do some cooking for once. For fear of excess baggage charges, I didn't bring home El Bulli, so I decided to tackle a French Laundry recipe instead. Thomas Keller may be the world's second most celebrated chef, but his cookbook is ridiculously impractical. I've previously tackled a dozen or so of his trickiest creations, with completely mixed success. I thought I'd take some cooking notes, and some tasting notes, and maybe that way my cooking will improve:

Black Sea Bass with Sweet Parsnips, Arrowleaf Spinach, and Saffron-Vanilla Sauce
This recipe is supposed to feed six, but through bitter disappointment I've learned to ignore Keller's advice. I stuck close to the original quantities, and it was enough for 2.

Bass
Six 2 to 3" pieces of black sea bass
Kosher Salt
White Pepper
Waitrose don't stock black sea bass. I bought greek regular sea bass instead. Keller recommends scraping the skin ad nauseam to dehydrate it, so it can crisp up later. I didn't have time for such poncing about, and was sure I'd just eviscerate the fish, so I skipped this.

Mussel Stock
18 mussels scrubbed and debearded
2 large garlic cloves peeled
1 large shallot peeled
4 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup sauvignon blanc
Keller expects you to bring all the ingredients to a boil, remove each mussel individually as they open, and then strain the stock through a chinois. I just ditched this entirely, not having a use for 18 mussels, and cobbled my own stock together later.

Spinach
Three 2" strips orange zest
3/4 teaspoon olive oil
6 ounces spinach
Kosher Salt
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
The recipe requires you to fry the zest in olive oil, add the spinach and some salt, and cook it until it wilts. You then evaporate off some fluid, and squeeze out the remainder. You bunch up the spinach into balls, and save it for later. This all seemed easy, so I did this pretty much exactly as requested. I used regular salt though, because Jeffrey Steingarten says there's no difference at all once it dissolves. No difficulties encountered.

Parsnip Puree
2 Parsnips peeled
1 cup and 1 tablespoon of heavy (double) cream
1/2 cup water
Pinch of kosher salt
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
You slice the parsnips into even rounds and semi-rounds, and then boil them in cream water and salt, for 25 minutes, before scraping it through a tamis (a french flat sieve that Keller is nuts about). Finally you are supposed to add more cream until it has the consistency of mashed potato. I ditched peeling, because it's dull. I do own a tamis, but I ditched this too, because it's a bitch to clean. Instead I boiled it all down, added a little extra milk, and finally blended it in a mixer until it hit the right texture.

Saffron-Vanilla Sauce
1/2 vanila bean split
1 cup mussel stock
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads
1 1/2 teaspoons heavy cream
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
I somehow forgot to read the instructions here. You're supposed to "build" the sauce bit by bit like a hollandaise. I just melted all the butter, added some cava and garlic in place of stock, and blended it in the mixer until it emulsified. Note to Keller: saffron doesn't fit in a teaspoon. My method worked fine, and made a rich saffron coloured sauce, which I stuck on the hob to keep warm.

To Complete
You roll the spinach balls in butter, and warm them at 350F in the oven. You then fry the fish skin side down in canola oil, flattening them with another pan. You give them a brief "kiss" on the other side and start piling up the ingredients, restaurant style. I used olive oil instead of canola. Despite getting hot oil spitting on my arms, in my eyes, and across half the kitchen, I did get them properly crisp. The stack is vanilla sauce, then parsnip puree, then spinach round (I pressed it into a ramekin to get the right shape), then finally the bass.
Tasting
The vanilla/bass is a classic fusion, and it works well. Sweet vanilla sauce, parsnips, and the citrus spinach, all complement each. The modified-Keller technique produces fantastic crispy skin on the bass, and moist delicious flesh.

The Stats
Cost - £8.70, not including the splash of cava (there was lots of vanilla pods and some cream left over though)
Time - 50 minutes start to finish
Ease - 6/10 (much simpler than previous Keller efforts, at least with my many shortcuts)
Taste - 8/10 (delicious, but not utterly startlingly good)

I consider this recipe a success, and I'd definitely cook it again; maybe even for a dinner party. It would be relatively easy to scale up the ingredients, and it looks and tastes impressive.