Fish Dumplings in Seattle: Quenelles de Brochet

Last weekend Elena and I converged on Ivan in Seattle and on Saturday night spent the evening with my good friends Amy & Dick.  Amy and I were part of a Kellogg/Partner’s of the America’s project and had worked together for three years along with a group of 38 other young professionals from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.  As part of that Amy and I traveled to the DC, Peru, Amazon, Manchu Picchu, Rio, and Salvador in Brazil to name a few places. 

I got brave and decided to try to make one of the 1000 Things from France called fish dumplings. Seemed like a good idea as Elena had recently had them in Lyon during her “field trip” to France for one of her classes.  I also think that I will forever think of white fish when I think back to our trip to the Amazon.  We had booked a trip with a credible tour company who off loaded us to another group who basically sold our food to the locals to make cash and served us these little pathetic white fish dinners.  I was hoping that my white fish would be a bit better than what we were served in the Amazon…

These dumplings are interesting in that you puree the fish, mix with the other ingredients, roll into sausage shaped rolls in saran wrap, bowl for 45 minutes and then serve with a lobster cream sauce that has about 100 steps to do just for the sauce alone.  Saveur was my go to on this one. The great news is that it turned out and that the steps were not as involved as I figured they would be. The bad news for Ivan is that I made a disaster in his very clean kitchen.  I also got all of his pots dirty.  He loved the dish so I think he felt the mess was worth the meal! 

It was wonderful seeing Amy and Dick and being able to have a conversation with elegant, well-read people and see Elena hold her own. The little grasshopper has grown up!