Root vegetables and sea food stew

Moitié en anglais, moitié en français. Ca se passe dans une famille française en vacances dans le Nord-est des Etats-Unis.

Un souvenir du restaurant “The view” à Lake Placid, une vue sur le lac, une lumière tamisée, des arbres de Noel illuminés en extérieur, un bar au comptoir de bois et hauts tabourets et des enfants qui jouent aux échecs pendant que nous savourons Vesper et Manhattan. J’avais commandé le « special » : fish stew with root vegetables. Enorme ! Des légumes fondants mais qui se tiennent, des morceaux de poissons fermes et une sauce riche en saveur, oncteuse et subtilement parfumée. Voilà ce que j’ai pu inventer à partir des sensations de ce soir là.

Root vegetables and sea food stew

The proportions can be adapted to taste. What really matters is to respect the way the veggies are cooked. You will need a big pot (crockpot will do it): the old cast one from your grandma or the more modern version cocotte-minute will be perfect.

Preparation: ½ h, cooking:1 ½ h

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbl sp. of olive oil

• One or two chopped onions: you want as much as to cover the bottom of your pot

•  Root vegetables diced (2x2cm²): parnsips (panais), carrots, turnips (navets), potatoes (firm potatoes, they can be of different colors). That’s all I tried so far, depending on your taste you could also go with sunchokes or Jerusalem artichokes (topinambours)

• Water to just cover the vegetables

• 1 cup of tomato puree 
•   1 ½ glass of Lillet 
•   Fish: any firm fish will work of course swordfish will be delicious but salmon and cod can perfectly make up for more expensive fish. Proportions depends on the final results, I personnaly call it a root vegetables stew so the fish is not the main part of the recipe, I would count roughly 100g of fish per adult

• Shrimps: not in the original recipe but a tasty add-on if you know where to find tasty shrimps (3-4 per adult) 
• 1 cup of sour cream (can be more if you like it very fat and creamy, can also be decreased down to 2 Tb spoons to have a lighter sauce) 
•  Parsley to top the plates (for a more subtil taste chervil will be a good choice)

Bake the onions in olive oil in the pot over medium heat until they are soft and translucide. In the meantine wash and dice the root vegetables in big chunks and throw them in the pot over the onions. Stir them in the oil for 2 minutes and then cover the with some water. The water should be at the same level as the vegetables. Then add the tomato puree, Lillet and let simmer with the lid for one hour (can be more if you’re not ready to serve your dish). ½ before you’re ready to eat top the vegetables with the fish also cut in big chunks and let it cook slowly with the lid on top. When you are ready to serve, add the sour cream and stir very carefully to preserve the chunks. If the sauce isnot thick enough, you might want to add 1 Tb spoon of corn starch (maizena) when adding the sour cream. After having served the plates, top them with parsley or chervil sprig.

 Another longer but better way to incorporate the fish is to cook it in a pan until slightly golden and then add it on top of the vegetables.