La Rochelle is a fishing port. It would be a shame to spend a day there and not eat seafood. Above is the menu of a restaurant at the Vieux Port that featured fricasseed calamari, fish chowder, and tuna tartare as appetizers; as main courses, fillet of sea bass with seared pork belly and pureed potatoes; a thick slab of cod fillet with leek and haddock risotto; and for the meat-eaters, and a steak with béarnaise sauce and fried new potatoes. For dessert, you could choose warm brioche caramelized in salted butter, served with vanilla ice cream; a chocolate lava cake, also with vanilla ice cream; or lemon custard served in a glass and topped with meringue. Something else you could have for dinner was oysters. Our choice was to go the the market and buy some fish to cook at the gîte where we were staying.
This is the market hall in La Rochelle. That's where we went to buy seafood. We bought fish for dinner that evening and oysters for a dinner later in the week. When you're traveling with a dog, it's hard to go to a nice restaurant. You can't just leave the dog in the car or alone at the gîte. And you can't enjoy a couple of glasses of wine with dinner in a restaurant and then drive an hour in the dark to get back to the place where you're staying. Besides, we like to cook.
The man selling fish in the market hall was informative and helpful. We had talked about buying either un bar (a sea bass) or une dorade (a sea bream). The fishmonger recommended the bream and filleted it for us. Then we went into the open-air market at the other end of the building and bought 20 fresh, live oysters for 10 euros. They would keep in the refrigerator for a day or two and make another good dinner. As you can see, we ate the bream fillets with some spinach and a few steamed new potatoes. We were happy with that. I don't remember what we had for dessert.
Fish can be so difficult to cook just right. Your dorade looks perfect! Would appreciate your tips if you post about future fish dishes!
ReplyDeleteI melted some butter in a pan, put in the two fillets, put a lid on the pan, and let the fish cook at medium or even low heat until it was done. I probably turned the fillets over, but maybe not. Salt and pepper, of course.
DeleteActually, here's what I wrote about cooking the Dorade fillets at the time.
DeleteThanks, Ken. Just checked back today (Tues.) to see if you had replied. Easy as that, really? Ok, I will get the freshest fish I can from the fishmonger and give it a try this week. We love to order fish in restaurants, but I've always been worried about ruining it at home! Glad to have the link to your previous post too.
DeleteThis market reminds me of the one we visted in Romo. Like Kiwi, I wonder how you cooked your fish.
ReplyDeleteThe market hall in La Rochelle does resemble the one in Romo.
DeleteLove the fish markets.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
Oh, I bet that was just delicious!
ReplyDelete