Vol-au-vent with fish

A pescetarian alternative for ragoût with meat

Recently I have published the recipe for vol-au-vent with ragoût of chicken meat. That once was a classic Dutch first course for Christmas dinner. Here is an alternative for people who do not eat meat, but do eat fish. This ragoût can also be used as stuffing for croquettes, but then more fish needs to be added.
How to make a roux is described extensively here, below is the short version.
For 4 to 8 persons; preparation in advance 10 minutes; preparation 15 minutes.

400 gr fillets of fish (preferably with firm meat)
fish fumet (enough to cover the fish, 1 to 2 cups)
1½ dl dry white wine
150 gr brown shrimp (the small ones)
1 shallot
40 gr butter
40 gr flour
1 dl cream
1 Tbsp chopped dill
nutmeg to taste
salt to taste (when using stock cubes or store-bought fumet, salt will not be necessary)
white pepper
4 pastry shells

Preparation in advance

Pour white wine in a pan, put in the fillets and add enough fish fumet to just cover the fish. Heat the fish to a little below boiling point and poach the fillets until just done (about five to eight minutes). Take the fish out of the pan and strain the liquid. Save 4 decilitres (about 1⅔ cup) of this liquid.
Wash the shrimp and check for remaining leggs and pieces of shell.
Chop the shallot very finely.

Preparation

Melt the butter in a pan with a thick bottom. The butter must not turn brown. Add the chopped shallot and let it sweat until transparent. Add the flour. Stir well with a wooden spoon. Add a small splash of the reserved liquid, stir until it has been completely absorbed. First it forms a kind of dough, but as more stock is added, it will become a sauce. Add the pieces of fish, shrimp and dill, and finish with adding pepper, nutmeg and salt to taste. Add the cream just before serving. Stir well, and keep on the fire for a few minutes longer.
In this version we use vol-au-vents from the baker or supermarket that only need reheating.

To serve

Put the preheated vol-au-vents on preheated plates, and scoop the ragout in the vol-au-vents. Let it overflow. Serve at once, because ragout cools quickly.

Very simple fish ragoût

The picture above shows a very simple version of the recipe. I used frozen shrimp and codfish. These were poached in water with salt. Then I prepared a roux from 40 gram butter, 40 gam flour and a half litre carton milk. Fish, shrimp and dill were added with some white pepper. Served with cooked stalk celery and boiled white rice.

Recipe for Vol-au-vent with home-made Ragoût from fish
This is a meatless version on a classic dish: pastry shells with ragoût, On this page a pescetarian version, with fish and shrimp.
© Author Christianne Muusers