Great Chef Roland Liccioni

Sauteed Daurade with French Beans, Cepes, and Eggless Bearnaise Sauce
Roland Liccioni
Carlo´s
Highland Park IL

Elegant, delicious, yet still a simple preparation: daurade fillets are sauteed, then finished in the oven and served over slender French green beans with a Bearnaise sauce which uses no eggs and spoonfuls of sauteed cepe mushrooms. Daurade, also called dorado, is a delicate fish well-suited to sauteing.

Serves 4

Yellow Tomato Coulis
4 yellow tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
Sugar to taste

Eggless Bearnaise Sauce
1 shallot, minced
2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
5 ounces yellow tomato coulis (above)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon minced tarragon

French Beans
2 cups French or baby green beans

Cepes
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces cepe mushrooms
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Daurade
4 tablespoons unsalted butter or 1/4 cup olive oil
Four 4-ounce daurade fillets, skin on

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Garnish
4 tarragon sprigs

To make the coulis: Preheat the oven to 375 F. Spread the tomatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast 8 to 10 minutes, until softened. Remove and taste for sweetness; adjust with sugar. Puree in a blender and strain through a fine-meshed sieve. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour; the coulis may be made a day ahead.

To make the sauce: Combine the shallot and vinegar in a small saute pan and cook over medium heat until the shallot is softened and the liquid has reduced to the consistency of syrup. Stir in the yellow tomato coulis and continue cooking until heated through, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter, a little at a time, until melted and incorporated.

To prepare the French beans: Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and add the beans. Let the water return to a boil and cook about 3 minutes; remove from heat, drain, and plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

To prepare the cepes: Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat and saute the mushrooms until lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

To prepare the daurade: Preheat the oven to 450 F. Heat half of the butter or olive oil in a medium saute pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add two of the daurade pieces, skin-side down, and cook for 3 minutes. Remove and set aside. Repeat with the remaining butter or olive oil and daurade. Place the daurade fillets in a baking pan or ovenproof skillet and bake until cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from oven.

To serve: Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium saute pan over medium heat and warm the beans in the butter. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in a medium saute pan over medium heat and warm the cepes. Rewarm the sauce and whisk in the chopped tarragon. Divide the beans among the plates, placing them in the centers of the plates, and top each with a daurade fillet. Spoon sauce around the daurade. Place spoonfuls of cepes in the sauce. Garnish each plate with a tarragon sprig.