Louisiana Blackfish with Sweet Corn and Caviar

amazon.com

Serves 6

Blackfish is a wonderful delicacy, white and flaky, a fish that doesn't need much coaxing. (Striped bass or snapper is a good substitute.) I like to combine blackfish with my friend John Burke's Louisiana caviar roe from local paddlefish and bowfin, or choupiquet, from the Atchafalaya River.

For the corn pudding

Cooking spray
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups (from 7-8 ears) Silver Queen corn kernels
1-2 pinches cayenne pepper
Salt
8 eggs

For the sauce
2 cups Basic Fish Pan Sauce
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
1 cup (from 3-4 ears) Silver Queen corn kernels
1 tablespoon butter
Salt

For the fish
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 4-ounce blackfish filets
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt

For the corn and crab sauté
6 ears baby corn, blanched and sliced into rounds
1 cup jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over
2 tablespoons butter
1 dash Tabasco
Salt
2 tablespoons (or more) Louisiana Caviar

Leaves from 2 sprigs fresh dill
Leaves from 2 sprigs fresh chervil

For the corn pudding, preheat the oven to 275°. Spray six 2-3-ounce ramekins with cooking spray and set aside.
Put the cream and corn into a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to moderate and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the corn and cream into a blender and purée until smooth. Add the cayenne and salt. With the motor running, add the eggs through the feed hole in the blender lid, blending the purée until the eggs are completely incorporated.

Divide the corn purée between the prepared ramekins. Set the ramekins in a pan large enough to hold them and fill the pan with enough hot water so that it comes halfway up the side of each. Bake the corn puddings until they are set, about 20 minutes. Remove the puddings from the hot water bath and set aside.

For the sauce, put the Fish Pan Sauce, lemongrass, and corn into a medium saucepan and simmer over moderate heat for 15 minutes. Add the butter and season with salt. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve into a small saucepan, discarding the solids. Keep the sauce warm in a warm spot on the stove.

For the fish, heat the olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over moderate heat. Score the skin of each blackfish filet in several places, then season the filets with lemon juice and salt. 

Cook the fish in the skillet, skin side down, until it is not quite cooked through, about 4 minutes. Turn the fish over and cook on the flesh side for about 2 minutes more. (The cooking times depend on the desired level of doneness; I'm always wary of overcooking.) Transfer the fish to paper towels to drain.

For the corn and crab sauté, return the skillet used for frying the fish to medium-high heat. Add the corn, crab, and butter and sauté until hot. Add the Tabasco and season with salt. Set aside.

Unmold the corn puddings into each of 6 wide warmed soup bowls. Place a fish filet over each pudding. Put a heaping spoonful of the corn and crab sauté over each piece of fish.

To froth the warm sauce, use an electric hand mixer and half-submerge the beaters in the sauce. Beat on high speed until a froth forms. Ladle the froth around the fish in each bowl.

Top each dish with a small dollop of Louisiana Caviar and sprigs of chervil and dill and chive blossoms if you like.

Win a copy of My New Orleans

The registered Project Foodie user that leaves the most memorable or creative comment below will win a copy of My New Orleans.  Keep the comments clean and relevant - tell us what attracts you to My New Orleans and/or what you feel makes that book award-worthy and we'll select one to be the winner of the profiled book.

Please note that you must be registered to enter this giveaway and upon winning provide a US postal address for us to ship My New Orleans to.  We'll announce the winner on May 2nd.

If you have not yet registered with Project Foodie, please take a moment to do so right now--it's absolutely free; and we promise never to share your email address with spammers or other unsavory types.

PermaLink