Seafood Bread – Jacques Pépin (Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, p. 138)

For our first blogworthy meal attempt, the Midden and I chose Pépin's Seafood Bread; hollowed out crusty Italian bread lined with herb butter, filled with chunks of fish and mushrooms, and topped with more butter, white wine, and breadcrumbs.

The recipe called for tuna, haddock, salmon, and squid, but the Midden pulled a face at that one and the fish monger was out of tuna and haddock, so ours is a mix of salmon, mahi mahi, cod, and orange roughy.

We got home and promptly realized we'd forgotten the Pernod (pronounced Pear-no, not "Purr-nod", as I soon learned), so the Midden ran back out and I started cubing and seasoning the fish. We hollowed the bread and chopped the insides for breadcrumbs and started on the butter.

The herb butter consists of almonds, garlic, and lots of fresh dill, blended with butter, salt, and pepper until smooth and super bright green. I'd love to show you how it looked inside the bread and on top of the fish, but I'm a dolt who forgot to get a picture before the breadcrumbs were on top, so here's a photo of the food processor:


Isn't that a lovely green?

The bread, fish, butter, and wine concoction simmered away in the oven for an hour while the Midden put the extra herb butter to good use in a green bean salad with bacon and bleu cheese. I sprinkled a bit of pecorino romano on top for the last few minutes to get all melted on the breadcrumbs. Here's the start:


And here's the finished product:


It was a bit in the pain to cut and have the pieces stay together, but the Midden did an outstanding job.

I don't know about the Midden, but this is the best thing I've ever made. The outside was crunchy and the inside was soft with butter and the whole kitchen smelled like garlic. The fish was perfectly cooked, too. Jacques, you're a genius.

But what about the only opinion that really matters?

The Scotsman pronounced it "stupendous", "best fish I ever ate", and even worthy of the Seine River dinner cruise! Final rating: