Cook local Charentes produce like a top chef

Cook local Charentes produce like a top chef

With eight Michelin-starred chefs in Charentes, the quality of high-end cooking in Charentes really stands out. Discover three recipes that we’ve picked out for you so that you can try your hand at cooking local produce like a top chef!

  • Hot-smoked Gensac sturgeon with warm potatoes
  • Guinea-fowl fricassée with black truffles, red kuri squash purée and Borderies walnuts
  • Whole sardines with smoked kipper ice-cream

Hot-smoked Gensac sturgeon with warm potatoes and garlic cream sauce

By Mathieu Brudo, Le Moulin de la Tardoire, Montbron.

Discover this sturgeon recipe by Mathieu Brudo, chef at Le Moulin de la Tardoire, which received its Michelin star in 2020.

Esturgeon

The sturgeon is a large freshwater fish much sought after for its succulent flesh and its eggs, from which caviar is made. The pisciculture du Moulin fish farm in Gensac-la-Pallue farms sturgeon in the cool, clear waters of the Gouffre, a spring which is the source of a tributary of the Charente River. Sturgeon are generally caught in the spring and the autumn.

Sturgeon FISH CULTURE

Preparation

The day before, rub the sturgeon with salt, rinse it with water and leave it to dry overnight in the fridge. For the hot-smoking process, the chef carries out a relatively complex procedure in the oven, using temperature probes. If you want to try this recipe at home, it would be easier to order the fish directly from Yann Laffon at the pisciculture du Moulin fish farm.

Boil your potatoes in salted water then plunge them into cold water. Peel and slice them. Heat the cream and as you stir, reduce it until it thickens. Season and add finely-chopped garlic. Make a vinaigrette with vinegar and sunflower oil (use greater quantities of vinegar than you normally would in a standard vinaigrette). Add the finely-chopped shallots, season and then set aside.

Cut the sturgeon into little sections then put them under the grill for a short period of time. Gently warm the potatoes in the garlic cream sauce.

Now for the presentation. Take a shallow bowl and line it with the warm potatoes and sauce mixture. Place a piece of sturgeon on top. Add a generous tablespoon of shallot vinaigrette over the fish, then add the finely-chopped chives. Shape the caviar into an oval form (quenelle) and place it on the sturgeon. Garnish and serve.

Ingredients 

For 6 people

  • 600g of firm-fleshed potatoes such as Charlotte potatoes
  • 300ml of single cream
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 3 tablespoons of wine vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil
  • 1 Gensac sturgeon fillet
  • Gensac caviar
  • Salt
  • Freshly-ground pepper
  • Chives

Guinea-fowl fricassée with black truffles, red kuri squash purée and Borderies walnuts

By Thierry Verrat, La Ribaudière, Bourg-Charente.

This recipe by Thierry Verrat, chef at the La Ribaudière restaurant which has boasted a Michelin star for the last 25 years, is a dish that you can make in the autumn and winter. It gives pride of place to free-range poultry from the Charentes, black truffles from Périgord and walnuts from the Noyeraie des Borderies near Cognac.

Guinea fowl fricassee with black truffle

Preparation

Bone the guinea-fowl, then cut the breasts and thighs in two. Set to one side. Pull the flesh off the bird’s carcass and put it in a cast-iron casserole dish. Peel the carrots and onions. Roughly chop the carrots, onions and stick of celery. Place them into the dish with the bird, along with the garlic, then pour in 1.5 litres of water. Cook over a gentle heat for an hour and a half. Strain, then set aside.

Roll the breast and thighs in flour, then season, before cooking them in butter in a casserole dish. Add 1 litre of chicken stock, then cook in the oven for 45 minutes at 180 °C. Add 250g of crème fraîche, a knob of butter, then season to taste.

Wash the red kuri squash, halve it, remove the seeds and roughly chop into cubes, leaving the skin on.

Place on a roasting tray with the duck fat, thyme, bay leaves, 3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for 25 minutes at 180°C, then blend in a food processor. Season to taste.

Place the guinea-fowl on a plate with the red kuri squash purée, before grating the Borderies walnuts (which you will have roasted beforehand) over it. Grate the black truffle over the guinea-fowl. Blend the sauce using a hand-mixer to emulsify it. Pour the sauce over the guinea-fowl.

Ingredients 

  • 1 guinea-fowl
  • 100g of unsalted butter
  • 350g of farm-fresh crème fraîche
  • 3 carrots
  • 2 onions
  • 1 head of garlic
  • 1 celery stick
  • 1 red kuri squash
  • 20g of Borderies walnuts
  • 100g of duck fat
  • 25g of flour
  • 30g of black truffles
  • Freshly-ground salt/pepper

Whole sardines with smoked kipper ice-cream

By Christopher Coutanceau, La Rochelle.

This freshly-caught sardine recipe from the restaurant Christopher Coutanceau, a two Michelin-starred establishment and member of the prestigious Grandes Tables du Monde club featuring some of the finest restaurants in the world, is the signature dish of the famous chef from La Rochelle.

Sardines are caught almost all year-round, from spring to autumn. However, the summer is still the best time for them. It’s easy to find them in La Rochelle ‘s markets, straight off the boat. The seaweed used by the chef come from a business based on the île de Ré: Les Algues de l’île de Ré.

SARDINES FROM THE HEAD TO TAIL AND BUTTERFLY ICE CREAM

Preparation

Grilled sardine fillets

Fillet and debone the sardines and grill them skin side down, seasoning them with sea salt and pepper.

Marinaded sardines

Gut and scale the sardines. Fillet them and marinade them for a few minutes in lemon juice and olive oil.

Smoked kipper ice-cream

Cut the kipper into pieces and infuse it in the milk and cream until it’s cooled. Add the powdered ingredients. Freeze and pacotize.

The garnish and sardine stock

Brown the heads and bones of the sardines in the oven at 180°C. Add the white wine. Peel and finely slice the carrot, onion and the stalk of celery. Put the sardine bones, the garnish and the bouquet garni into a saucepan. Cover with water and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain through a muslin chinois.
Mix together the zest of the kaffir lime, the wakame, kombu, sesame oil, the rice wine vinegar, ponzu sauce, sweet soy sauce and tamarind paste. Season the sardine stock with this mixture, leave to marinade for 10 minutes and strain using the muslin chinois. Cook the tapioca and the Enoki mushrooms with the sardine stock.

Finishing touches

Fry the sardine tails and bones at 180°C.

Ingredients for 8 people

Marinaded sardines

  • 8 sardines
  • 1 lemon
  • 200ml olive oil

Grilled sardine fillets

  • 8 Sardines
  • Olive oil to taste

Kipper ice-cream

  • 250ml milk
  • 60ml single cream
  • 1/4 smoked kipper
  • 12g powdered milk
  • 12g powdered glucose
  • 1g stabilizer

Sardine tartare

  • 4 sardines
  • 2g shallots
  • Lemon juice
  • Olive oil
  • Salt/pepper
  • Chives/flat-leaved parsley to taste

Sardine garnish and stock 

  • 80g tapioca
  • 70g Enoki mushrooms
  • 16 sardine heads and bones
  • 20g carrots
  • 20g onions
  • 20g celery stalk
  • 1 bouquet garni
  • 50ml white wine
  • 1 kaffir lime
  • 4g wakame
  • 8g kombu
  • 10ml sesame oil
  • 10ml rice wine vinegar
  • 40ml ponzu sauce
  • 10ml sweet soy sauce
  • 10g tamarind paste

Finishing touches

  • 8 sardine tails and bones
  • 30g sesame paste
  • Garlic chive sprouts, Thai basil, dulse and ‘sea grapes’ (green algae).
A

Moulin de la Tardoire, restaurant de Mathieu Brudo

Moulin de la Tardoire, Montbron, France

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B

Restaurant Christopher Coutanceau

Plage de la Concurrence, Allée du Mail, 17000 La Rochelle, France

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C

La Ribaudière, restaurant de Thierry Verrat

La Ribaudière, Place du Port, Bourg-Charente, France

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