HOUSTON – This Friday is Bastille Day, the French National Day, and the perfect occasion to get started in French cooking!
Philippe Schmit, the executive chef at PS21, stopped by Houston Life with a classic appetizer that’s crispy outside and creamy inside and that can be a main course, a Bouchée à la reine with seafood and saffron sauce.
The bouchée à la reine is named after the Queen of France, Marie Leszczynska, wife of Louis XV.
Chef Philippe has been bringing the flavors of his home country to H-town for almost 20 years. He is a master chef and moved to Houston in 2004 to open up Cafe Moderne. He became well-known after the opening of his eponymous restaurant Philippe and was considered one of the top chefs in Houston.
He’s now affectionately called the French Cowboy and you can find his food at his new restaurant PS21 in Upper Kirby, “a return to French classics that he grew up with, and a much more laid-back experience than my previous restaurants,” he said.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 lb Mussels
- 2 cups white wine
- Shallots ; 1 gum;thinly diced
- 4 scallops, cleaned and washed
- 8 shrimps, peeled
- 2 tbsp. Cooking olive oil
- 1 oz Butter
- One sheet of puff pastry 16 x 24
- 1 yolk
- 2 tbsp. water
- 1 pinch Saffron
- 1 .5 cup Cream
- Salt & pepper
- 2 tbsp. pesto
- 1 tbsp. olive oil virgin
- 2 tbsp. Olive oil
- One large carrot
- One stick of celery
- 8 green large asparagus, peeled
- Xanthan gum
METHOD:
Cook in boiling salted water, the peeled asparagus
Cut a thin Julienne of carrots and celery.
Sauté with olive oil the celery for 30 seconds at medium heat and blanch in boiling salted water, the carrots for 30 seconds
Wash mussels and pull the” bear” out of each mussel.
if you don’t buy pesto, blend a quart of a pound of basil with 4 tablespoons of olive oil.
Optional: 1 tablespoon of greeted Parmesan and 1 tablespoon of thin crushed pine nuts
Puff Pastry:
Cut in square 3 by 3 inches, brushed with egg wash
Cook the 4 “vol-au-vent/bouchée à la reine " at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes
Mussels :
Cook the mussels in the large pot with white wine shallots at high heat until they open, which will take no more than two minutes.
Save 8 for presentation. Pull all the rest out of their shell. Check on any bear left that you can cut with a scissor, If necessary.
Sauté the scallops and shrimp on high heat with olive oil and butter.
Heat the vegetables and asparagus.
Sauté the oyster mushrooms at high heat in olive oil and butter for 1 minute.,
Warm the mussels in pesto.
Boil the mussel juice, and add saffron, xanthan gum, and cream ( blend if possible )
PLATING
Reheat the puff pastry and sit in the middle of a plate
Fill up with vegetables first, mussels second, asparagus third, oyster mushroom fourth, fifth the scallops, shrimp, and mussel in the shell
then pour the sauce around the puff pastry and drizzle a few drops of pesto.
“Bon appetite”
PS-21 is hosting a Bastille Day party on July 14th starting at 8 pm benefiting March of Dimes. For all details, see the link below.