Here is another recipe that I’ll be serving in small plate form for our upcoming multi-course dinner.  I’ve been tinkering with this recipe for a while now and its gone through several different versions.  Here is the final version.  It involves several parts but each is very simple and delicate, with clean flavors.

Ingredients

16 oz. – fresh halibut fillet

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. – clarified butter, separated

2 oz. – white truffle oil or butter

2 – eggs

1 cup – coconut milk, separated

1 1/2 tsp. – fish sauce, separated

2 cloves – minced garlic, separated

4 Tbsp. – flour

1/4 tsp. – red curry paste

6 oz. – fresh fiddleheads

whole milk

salt/white pepper

Poached Halibut

Add 1 cup clarified butter plus truffle oil/butter to a small deep sauce pan.  Heat to 145 degrees and hold at that heat (very low heat).  Slice the halibut into 1 inch wide strips and lightly salt.  Place the halibut into the sauce pan and make sure that it is covered by the butter.  If its isn’t covered add more butter or a light oil like canola. Slowly poach the fish until it begins to flake but never let it go over 140-145 degrees.

Coconut Crepe

Add eggs, 2 Tbsp. clarified butter, 1/2 coconut milk, 1 tsp. fish sauce, 1 clove garlic, and flour into a blender.  Blend until well mixed.  The batter should be very thin.  If not then add whole milk and reblend until it is smooth and very thin.  Heat a griddle on low heat, spray with oil, and pour about a 1/4 cup batter at a time on the griddle, tilting the griddle to spread the batter evenly around into a thin crepe. Let the crepe lightly brown, then flip.  Once its lightly browned on both sides, place on a large plate and cover tightly.

Curry Sauce

Heat a small sauce pan on medium heat and add a little of the clarified butter from the poaching pan.  Add the curry paste and heat until it softens and starts to come apart.  Add the rest of the coconut milk and garlic and heat through.  It should be very thin, if it’s too thick then add a little water to thin it out.

Sautéed Fiddleheads

Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat and add several tablespoons of the poaching butter.  Sauté the fiddleheads with a little salt and white pepper until tender.

Plating

Place a little sauce onto each plate.  Plate strips of fish inside crepes and roll tightly.  Slice 1 inch pieces on a diagonal and place in the center of the sauce.  Place a few fiddleheads on top.  Dust the plate with more salt and white pepper.

Every year I do a large multicourse dinner around Mother’s day (you can see some in previous posts here and here). My goal always is to come up with new and unique recipes to fill the night with oohs and aahs. Because I try and come up with my own recipes (either entirely original ideas or new versions of the classics), it means that I spend a bunch of time practicing new recipes in the weeks and months before the dinner.  Here is a recipe that I’ve been working on lately that I’m pretty sure I’ll be using this year. I’ve seen this concept jokingly referred to as ‘raviolo’ instead of ‘ravioli’ because raviolo is the singular form and these are large enough that you could conceivably eat just one.

It started with the fact that I found a beautiful locally foraged black truffle at the farmer’s market.

Black Truffle Ravioli with a Soft Egg Yolk Center

1/2 batch – Semolina pasta dough (see recipe here)

2 cups – Homemade ricotta (see recipe here, note: the recipe is found inside the post but is not the subject of that post)

1/4 cup – Mustard greens (about 2 leaves)

10 – small eggs

fresh black truffle (substitute with truffle oil)

4 Tbsp – Truffle butter (see recipe here)

12 – Fresh sage leaves

Kosher salt

White Pepper

For the filling:

Heat a small pot of water until it comes to a gentle boil.  In the meantime, rinse the Mustard greens and cut off the stems.  Prepare a small bowl of ice water next to the pot of boiling water.  Place the greens in the boiling water for 5-10 seconds then remove and plunge promptly into the ice water, cool completely.  Mince the greens as finely as possible. 

Press as much water as possible out of the ricotta then add to a small bowl. Add the minced greens, 2 eggs, some finely minced truffle (I used about 1/2 tsp.), and salt and pepper to taste (but a bit on the salty side).  Mix well and set aside. 

To make the ravioli:

Roll the dough out (using a pasta roller if available) to it’s thinnest setting and lay the sheets on an evenly floured counter.

Place a bowl down onto the dough, acting as a guide, and trace around it with a pasta blade or pizza cutter.  Make 16 large circles.  Place a small mound (about 1/4 cup) filling in the center of 8 of the circles then using a spoon, make a small well in the center of each one. Separate the egg yolks from the whites (save the whites for something fun like macarons) and carefully place a yolk in the well in the center of each raviolo.

Using a small cup of cool water, dip your finger and spread a little water along the edges of the raviolo.  Place a remaining circle on the top of each raviolo and press the edges tightly to seal.  Bring a large pot of water to a low simmer, adding 2-3 Tbsp. kosher salt to the water.

For the brown butter:

Preheat a skillet on med-low. Add truffle butter and finely minced sage leaves.  The butter will first begin to foam then the solids will start to get very brown.  Once the solids are brown the butter will take on a nutty/caramel sort of aroma.  Drop the heat to low (or remove from the heat altogether).  Do not let the solids turn black (this will taste burnt).

Final steps:

Gently add the ravioli to the pot of low simmering water in small batches (no more than 4 at a time). Set a timer and cook them for 2-2 1/2 minutes (depending on how low your simmer is).  Remove the ravioli from the water and place directly into the pan of browned butter, flip each ravioli once (so that they are well coated) and place on plates.  Garnish with shaved truffle and sage leaves.  Eat immediately.