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Close-up of a pan-seared fish fillet resting skin side up beside a pool of smooth, glossy orange crustacean sauce on a dark speckled plate. The skin is golden with charred patches and flakes of salt, and the white flesh shows along the edge of the fillet.

GEOFF's Crustacean Fennel and Leek Sauce…

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A couple of crustacean stock cubes from the freezer turned into a sauce for dinner. Fennel and leek are sweated in butter until soft and sweet, warmed through with the stock, then finished off the heat with cold butter and a few drops of aged sherry vinegar. It's kept loose rather than reduced, and takes about as long as cooking the fish: leave the vegetables in as a trivet under a fillet, or strain them out and spoon the liquid under seared scallops.
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Servings: 6 people
Course: Condiment, Dinner, Entrée, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine: Australian, French
Calories: 115
Ingredients Equipment Method Nutrition Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 180 gm fennel, trimmed and finely and evenly sliced, fronds reserved
  • 120 gm leek, white and pale green part, finely and evenly sliced
  • 45 gm unsalted butter
  • 180 ml GEOFF's Crustacean Stock (9 × 20ml frozen cubes) See GEOFF's Crustacean Stock recipe
  • 30 gm cold unsalted butter, diced
  • 3 gm sea salt flakes
  • 9 ml aged sherry vinegar use lemon juice as an alternate

Equipment

  • 1 Induction or Gas Stovetop

Method
 

  1. 1.      Melt 45gm butter in a wide frying pan on induction setting 4 (low-medium flame). Add the fennel and leek with 1.5gm salt. Cook gently for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft, translucent and starting to turn silky. If the edges begin to brown, turn the heat down - you want sweetness here, not colour.
    2.      Add the 180ml crustacean stock. The cubes can go in straight from the freezer; they melt in a minute or two. Bring to a gentle simmer on induction setting 4 (low–medium flame) and warm through for 2-3minutes, until the stock has worked into the vegetables and there is still liquid around them.
    3.     Take the pan off the heat. Add the 30gm cold butter a few pieces at a time, swirling the pan until each addition melts into the liquid and it turns glossy.
    4.      Add 6ml aged sherry vinegar, stir and taste. Add up to3ml more if it needs it. The vinegar should sharpen the stock, not make the dish taste vinegary.
    5.      Taste for salt. If your stock is well seasoned you may need very little more, up to another 1.5gm.
    6.      Spoon the sauce onto warmed plates, with the liquid around the fennel and leek. Sit the cooked fish fillet directly on top and serve straight away.

Nutrition

Calories: 115kcal

Notes

Suggested Servings

  1. With the fennel and leek left in as a trivet under a pan-seared fish fillet, skin on or off.
  2. Strained, with the liquid alone spooned under seared scallops.
  3. Scatter the reserved fennel fronds over each plate just before serving.
  4. Sourdough on the side for the liquid left on the plate.
  5. Wine: a Clare Valley Riesling - its acidity sits comfortably alongside the sherry vinegar and the sweetness of the fennel.

Notes:

  1. The stock carries this dish, so the better the stock, the better the sauce. I make mine from whatever crustacean shells and frames I have - prawn, crab, bugs or crayfish all work.
  2. I freeze the stock in a silicone ice cube tray, then turn the cubes into a labelled container. At about 20ml each they measure themselves: allow 1½ cubes per person.
  3. The stock can also go in other directions: white wine and butter, saffron and cream, tomato, or finished with shellfish butter.
  4. Add the cold butter off the heat. On a hot pan it melts into a pool of fat instead of thickening the liquid.
  5. Make ahead: the fennel and leek can be sweated (step 1) a few hours before serving. Add the stock, butter and vinegar just before plating.

Fridge Friendly Instructions:

  1. Keeps for up to 2 days in a sealed glass container in the fridge.
  2. Stovetop: reheat in a small pan on induction setting 3 (low flame) with a splash of stock or water, stirring, for 3–4 minutes. Don't let it boil or the butter will separate.
  3. Steam oven: 90°C for 5 minutes in a covered solid stainless container. Stir before serving.
  4. Microwave: 50% power in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, until just hot.
  5. Taste after reheating - a drop more sherry vinegar brings it back into line.

Freezer Friendly Instructions:

  1. The finished sauce is not suitable for freezing: the fennel goes limp and the butter separates on thawing. Freeze the stock, not the dish.
 

Nutrition Facts — 6 servings recipe

Amount Per Serving | Calories - 115 or Kilojoules - 480 | Total fat - 10gm, Saturated fat - 6.4gm, Monounsaturated fat - 2.6gm, Polyunsaturated fat - 0.5gm, Trans fat - 0gm | Cholesterol - 30mg | Sodium - 185mg | Potassium - 180mg | Total Carbohydrate - 5gm, Dietary Fibre - 1.3gm, Sugars - 1.9gm | Protein - 1.3gm | Vitamin A - 11% | Vitamin C - 7% | Calcium - 3% | Iron - 4%.
*The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie / 8370 Kilojoule diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie/kilojoule needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated.

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