Coley Blanquette with Rice

📝 Ingredients

• 600 g coley fillets
• 3 carrots (about 100 g each)
• 250 g button mushrooms
• 1 brown onion (about 100 g)
• 1 vegetable stock cube + 600 ml hot water
• 1 bay leaf + ½ tsp dried thyme
• 25 g unsalted butter + 30 g plain flour
• 100 ml light single cream, 12 %
• ½ lemon (for the juice)
• 280 g long-grain rice
• 10 g fresh parsley
• Salt, white pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Sauté pan with lid
• Large saucepan
• Slotted spoon
• Whisk
• Wooden spoon
• Colander

📖 Steps

1. Peel the carrots and cut them into 5 mm slices. Peel and finely slice the onion. Clean the mushrooms with damp kitchen paper without rinsing them under the tap (they would soak up water), trim the earthy ends of the stalks, then quarter them.
2. In the sauté pan, dissolve the stock cube in the 600 ml of hot water. Add the carrots, onion, bay leaf and thyme, bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes over a medium heat, with the lid ajar. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, rinse the rice in cold water and cook it for 11 to 12 minutes in a large saucepan of boiling salted water, then drain and keep warm, covered. Cut the coley into large 4 cm chunks, removing any bones with your fingertips.
4. Lower the heat under the sauté pan so the stock is barely simmering, not boiling. Add the coley chunks and poach for 5 to 6 minutes, until the flesh turns white and opaque. Carefully lift them out with a slotted spoon along with the vegetables and set aside in a covered dish.
5. Remove the bay leaf and pour the stock into a bowl (about 500 ml remains). In the wiped-out sauté pan, melt the butter over a low heat, add the flour all at once and whisk for 1 to 2 minutes: the roux should foam without colouring.
6. Gradually pour the hot stock over the roux, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Leave to thicken for 5 minutes over a low heat, stirring, until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Off the heat, stir in the cream and the juice of the half lemon, then season with salt and pepper.
7. Return the vegetables and coley chunks to the sauce and reheat for 2 minutes over a very low heat, stirring gently with the wooden spoon so the fish doesn't break up. Do not let it boil: the fish would dry out and the sauce could split.
8. Finely chop the parsley. Divide the rice between warm shallow bowls, spoon over plenty of blanquette, sharing out the fish and vegetables evenly, then sprinkle with parsley. Serve straight away: the sauce thickens as it cools.