Photo by Mary Smiley
Provenance of Dish
When I lived in Sarasota Florida, I went to Venice Jetty to photograph a very special water bird. I met some super cool old guys at the jetty one of whom was an elephant trainer with the Ringling circus (which was home based in Sarasota) and the other who hooked and landed a gorgeous pompano while I took photos, and then said, "I don't have a cooler", to which I replied jokingly, "well, you'll have to give it to me then because I'm leaving right now." He wiped off the sand and handed me the fish. I was astonished. I said I was only kidding and he said, "well, I'm not kidding, please take the fish and enjoy it." WOO HOO! I love, love, love pompano. I rushed home and filleted it so guess what's for dinner?
Recipe
Ingredients
(4) 6-8 oz Pompano fillets or other white fish fillets
1/3 cup white wine
3 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon Key lime zest
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives
1 small handful of dried black trumpet mushrooms. These are Craterellus fallax
Instructions
Rehydrate your black trumpets in a bowl of warm water and set aside
Combine first 5 ingredients in a small skillet; cook over medium heat until reduced to 3 tablespoons.
Stir in whipping cream, and cook until reduced to 3 tablespoons.
Reduce heat to medium-low; add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring until butter melts.
Remove from heat; strain through a metal sieve.
Stir in lime zest and salt. Keep warm.
Season fish fillets with salt and pepper on both sides. There should be no skin on the fillets.
Saute the fish fillets in butter in a medium-high saute pan.
Put in pan face side up.
Cook a few minutes on each side until golden brown and cooked through. These are not thick fillets, so don't over cook.
Set aside under loose foil to keep warm.
Saute the rehydrated black trumpets in a pan with butter and shallots over medium heat.
Save the soaking liquid for cooking. As the mushrooms cook off liquid, add some of the reserved soaking liquor to the pan and allow the liquid to be absorbed by the mushrooms.
The mushrooms will need about 10 minutes to cook thoroughly.
Top the cooked fish with the mushrooms and add the beurre blanc sauce to the top.
I like to serve the fish over Cilantro rice.
Cilantro rice: Jasmine rice, cooked and then butter and chopped cilantro added to taste. Salt and pepper
