Poached Smoked Sable Fish with Bacon, Clams, and Cabbage

Filling and sable: simple, sumptuous, and satisfying. This is a bowl to warm the soul, and the sablefish, also known as black cod, is rich with natural oils.

Poached Smoked Sablefish

4 cups (1 L) milk
4 5-oz (150-g) pieces wild
sablefish (black cod)
2 Tbsp (30 mL) parsley, finely chopped

Fish Velouté Sauce

16 Savoy cabbage leaves
1 large carrot, cut into sticks
1 1/2 oz (45 g) butter
1 Tbsp (15 mL) flour
1 cup (250 mL) fish stock
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp (15 mL) grainy mustard
20 clams
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
Juice of 1 lemon

Bacon Garnish

12 thin strips of bacon

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Place bacon between 2 sheets of parchment paper on baking sheet. Top with a second baking sheet and bake in oven until bacon is crisp, about 7 to 10 minutes. Set aside.

For fish velouté sauce, fill large saucepan with water, add salt to taste, and bring to boil. Add cabbage and carrot and boil until just cooked, about 3 to 5 minutes. Set aside.

Melt butter, stir in flour, and cook over low heat until mixture browns slightly. Gradually add fish stock and blend until smooth. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens. Simmer 10 minutes and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place cabbage and carrots in medium saucepan with fish velout sauce and mustard. Add clams, thyme, and bay leaf and cook over low heat, simmering until clams open. Remove clams and vegetables and set them aside. Continue to cook sauce until reduced by half and it coats back of spoon. Season with lemon juice.

To poach sablefish, in a separate saucepan, bring milk to simmer over medium-high heat. Add sablefish and cook until fish flakes with a fork, about 7 minutes.

Arrange vegetables on a plate and top with sablefish. Drizzle with sauce and garnish with parsley and crisp bacon. Serves 4.

source: "This February, Go West", alive #380, 2006