James Peterson

Saffron and Tomato Fish Gelée

Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Easy

  • Yield:

    2 cups

Appears in

top 1000Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making

Sauces

By James Peterson

Published 1991

  • About

This gelée is analogous to a Mediterranean fish soup and is excellent when served with an assortment of cold poached fish. Although the recipe calls for concentrated fish stock (which should be made from very fresh fish), the gelée is even better if the poaching liquid from several batches of fish is used as a base. This gelée can also be used in the layers of a cold terrine or hure.

Ingredients

concentrated fish stock, warm or fish poaching liquid, warm 2 cups or 2 cups 500 ml or 500 ml
finely chopped fresh marjoram leaves 1 tbsp 15 ml
saffron threads 1 pinch 1 pinch
tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced ½ cup 125 ml
salt and pepper to taste to taste

Method

  1. Let the fish stock settle in a glass jar. It will clarify itself by leaving sediment near the bottom and clear liquid at the top. Carefully ladle off the top, clear portion and strain it first through a fine chinois, then through a chinois lined with a wet napkin or a triple layer of cheesecloth.
  2. Tie the marjoram leaves in a small square of cheesecloth.
  3. Heat the stock in a 1-quart (1 liter) saucepan and stir in the saffron, tomatoes, and the sachet of marjoram leaves. Remove the pan from the heat and cover it with a lid. Let the flavors infuse for 10 minutes. Gently strain the stock through a fine chinois. Don’t press down in the strainer or you will cloud the gelée.
  4. When the gelée stock has cooled, remove the marjoram and check the gelée’s consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Copyright © 2017 by James Peterson. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.