Showing posts with label Brill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brill. Show all posts

Turbot - Turbot. Turbot, the fish on French Menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

     
A Wild Turbot
   
Turbot – Turbot or Breet, a flatfish, but not a flounder. Turbot is one of the world's best tasting white fish; it’s up there with Dover Sole. Turbot has lean, white, mild tasting, firm flesh and most of the fish on restaurant menus are farm-raised. If I had been asked to blind taste farm-raised turbot and wild turbot I would catch the farm-raised fish every time; nevertheless, farm-raised turbot is a whole lot better than no turbot.
  
Farm-raised turbot and wild turbot compared.
  
Farm-raised turbot weighs from 0.5 kg to 2 kg (1 to 4 lbs ). Wild turbot, turbot sauvage in French, are much larger than farmed fish. With their rounded diamond shape, wild turbot mostly weighs over 6 kg (13 lbs), and are sometimes larger. Wild turbot are caught off France’s Atlantic, and Mediterranean coasts and individual fish have been caught weighing over 10 kg (22 lbs). Turbot have been overfished, and catches are now limited.
       
Turbot is best when cooked as part of the whole fish, but then they may be very large, and so filets will be cut and prepared individually. Turbot filets are best when steamed, poached or pan-fried; regardless, turbot are on menus when grilled or roasted. As turbot is a fish that quickly dries out, grilling and roasting must be done with great care.
 
The French word for turbot is spelled the same as in English, but the final T is not pronounced.  Just pronounce the word turbo, like a car with a turbo engine, and your server will be impressed.
  
Turbot and barbue - brill.
  
Restaurants have been known to use the smaller but similar tasting barbue, brill, when wild turbot is unavailable, and I have also seen a Parisian fish shop that was very openly selling brill marked as turbot.   Nevertheless, there is not a huge difference in the taste as brill is a member of the turbot family.  When brill is cooked its milder than turbot flavor may be hidden with a sauce, and so it is not easily identified. Before either of the fish are cooked or fileted it is easy to see that turbot is not a smooth fish and has bumps but no scales, while brill is smooth with scales.

Turbotin –  A small turbot.

Turbot on French menus:
 
Filet de Turbot à la Crème d'Huîtres, Risotto aux Algues – Filet of turbot served with a creamy, oyster sauce and a seaweed-flavored risotto.
   
Lightly fried turbot
https://www.flickr.com/photos/djjewelz/5037597818/
    
Tronçon de Turbot Sauce Hollandaise - A filet of turbot served with Sauce Hollandaise. This cut, tronçon, is pronounced tronson. The cut is the original name used for filets from flatfish. Despite its origins tronçon is now used for a cut of meat also.
 
Pavé de Turbot. A wide filet of turbot.  Literally, pavé means a paving stone or a flat slab. On a menu pavé will describe slices of steak, liver and or fish and is also used in the names of particular square and oblong-shaped cheeses.
       
Jean Georges Turbot with Chateau Chalon sauce.
Vin Jaunes are aged for a minimum of six years and three months and taste like dry fino sherry. 
                 
Turbot Poché Sauce Hollandaise, Pommes Vapeur, Épinard (Pour Deux Personnes) – Poached turbot served in a Sauce Hollandaise together with steamed potatoes and spinach. (For two persons).  Restaurants will prefer to cook their turbot, when purchased as a whole fish, on the bone, which is the tastiest way.   A turbot provides four filets, and so here it seems they will be serving each diner two small filets, half of a small, farm-raised fish.
   
Turbot Rôti, Cocos de Paimpol, Jus de Crustacés – Roast turbot flavored with the cooking juices from crustaceans and accompanied by France’s  AOC/AOP unique Cocos de Paimpol beans.  N.B. On French menus, crustaceans include crabe – crabs; crevettes-shrimp; écrivisse – freshwater crayfish; homard- the two-clawed lobster; langouste – lobster tails; langoustine – Dublin Bay prawns or scampi, and more.
    
Lightly roasted turbot
served with fennel and samphire.
Samphire is a plant that grows wild along the coasts; it is not a seaweed though it is sometimes called sea asparagus, a name that is given for its looks, not its taste. The turbot steak in the picture was cooked with the skin on as turbot easily dries out when roasted.
         
Turbot Sauvage - Wild Turbot
The French word sauvage came to English as savage.
        
Turbot Sauvage (selon arrivage) Poché dans son Jus, Champignons, Petits Pois, Carottes, Crémeux Acidulée - Wild turbot, (depending on availability), poached in its own juices and served with a creamy, tangy sauce; accompanied by button mushrooms, baby peas, and carrots.
    
Turbot in the languages of France’s neighbors:
    
(Catalan - rèmol empetxinat), (Dutch – tarbot), (German – steinbutt), (Italian – rombo, rombo chiodato), (Spanish - rodaballo).
   
Connected Posts:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
Sole Française. Dover Sole or Sole Française on French Menus. Dover Sole in France may be on your menu as Sole Française.    
  

  
Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 400 articles that include over 2,500 French dishes with English translations and explanations.  Just add the word, words or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google or Bing.
  

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2016, 2017.
 



Barbue - Brill, the Fish. Brill in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


Barbue – Brill.
 
Brill is a tasty but mild, well-textured fish, with firm white meat. On French menus Brill will be grilled or sautéed, but, just as often poached or baked, but always served with a sauce. Many recipes initially created for turbot are also offered for brill.
   
A braised brill filet
www.flickr.com/photos/60173925@N06/16121440667/

Brill and turbot are often confused though they have some recognizable differences but are related flatfish.  Wild turbot and brill have a very a similar taste and texture with the experts giving turbot a slightly stronger taste and somewhat firmer flesh. Despite that, since both turbot and brill are usually served with a sauce few of us can tell them apart when cooked.  
The most famous brill recipe is still on menus today though it was created over 150 years ago; that recipe is Filets de Barbue Duglére, brill in the manner of Duglére. In France's culinary history of Haute Cuisine Adolphe Duglére is one of its most famous and creative chefs.
 
Brill on French menus:

Barbue Sauvage Sauce aux Crustacés, et Pineau des Charentes - Wid brill served with a sauce made from crustaceans, (that will be mainly from shrimps and Dublin Bay Prawns) flavored with Pineau des Charentes, the Aperitif of France’s Cognac region. Pineau des Charentes comes in two versions, whites, really light to dark yellows, and rosés, with some of the rosés dark enough to be called reds. These are wines whose aging and fermentation has been stopped by the addition of Cognac. (Despite this menu listing's emphasis all brill are wild).
    
Filets de Barbue Duglére - Filets of brill in the manner of the chef Duglére. Here the fish is poached in the oven in a sauce based on fish stock, tomatoes, parsley, butter, shallots, and white wine.  This dish was created while Dugléré was the executive chef, at the legendary Café Anglais, Paris and is still on many menus though the Café Anglais closed 100 years ago.
   
  Filets de Barbue Duglére
 
Filet de Barbue Snacké, Faitout de Coques, Palourdes et Couteaux au Jus de Chlorophylle, Émulsion de Crevettes Grises – A lightly braised filet of brill served with a  casserole of cockles,  clams, and razor clams cooked in a green, vegetable broth and served in a thick sauce made from grey sand shrimps. French menus often include the named of the cooking utensils used and the faitout used here is a casserole; the same cooking pot may elsewhere be called a marmite.  Chlorophylle is chlorophyll, the green pigment of plants that allows photosynthesis. Here the chef is telling the diner that the green color of the broth comes from green leaf vegetables.  Depending on the vegetable used, for example, spinach, watercress, kale, cabbage, peas, and mint; the color may or may not add flavor.
                 
Tronçon de Barbue Rôti au Beurre Salé et Velouté d'Huître Fine de Claire - A generous cut of brill roasted with a lightly salted butter and served with a velvety sauce made with fine de claire oysters.  This cut, a tronçon, (pronounced tronson) is a  traditional name used for filets from flatfish. Despite its origins tronçon is now used for a cut of meat also.  Fines de claire are oysters fattened for approximately one month before being sent to market.
   
Filet de Barbue, Noix de Saint-Jacques au Boudin Noir - Filet of brill prepared with the meat of the king scallop and slices of black pudding sausage.   
  
Brill, Oysters, Wasabi, Cucumber amazingness
www.flickr.com/photos/simondee/1686890671/

Are brill and turbot different?
   
The two fish have similar tastes and textures. Consequently, restaurants have been known to use the smaller but similar tasting and less expensive barbue, brill, when wild turbot is unavailable, and I have seen a Parisian fish shop that was very clearly selling brill marked as turbot.  In a fishmonger's you can tell brill from turbot when they are uncooked and unskinned. The absence of the protruding skin bubbles that clearly mark a turbot is a clear giveaway.  Brill also have scales while turbot has none. Wild turbot may be over 70 cms long and a wild brill that reaches 50 cms long is a large brill. However, since much of the turbot on French menus comes from farmed fish when you do see brill on the menu go for it. Fish are what they eat.
   

Filet de Barbue, Artichaut Poivrade et Sauce aux Olives Vertes
Filet of brill served with baby artichokes and a green olive sauce.

Brill in the languages of France’s neighbors:
 
(Catalan - Rèmol), (Dutch - griet ,(German – glattbutt), (Italian - rombo liscio), (Spanish -– corujo).
 
Brill in other languages:

(Chinese (Mandarin) –),  (Danish- slethvarre),  (Greek – Ρομβοπισί, romvopisi), (Hebrew – putit, פוטית).. (Portuguese -  rodovalho ), (Rumanian - calcan mic), (Russian – Romb), (Ukrainian - gladkii kalkan), (Turkish - Çivisizkalkan balığı). (Latin - scophthalmus rhombus). With thanks for assistance in these languages to Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2014. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (11/2014).
   
Connected Posts:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    
 
Searching for words, names or phrases on French Menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google. Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 400 articles that include over 3,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017.

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