Taste of Scandinavia – Langoustine with potato puree and soured cream
Scandinavian food very appealing to me as they use a lot of Omega 3 rich fish and seafood. When I was challenged to reproduce this Langoustine with potato puree and soured cream dish by the chefs at Aveqia, I had to attempt it. Having been to a cooking lesson there, I knew that their recipes are quite involved and use a lot of different cooking techniques. I love learning new cooking techniques but without someone instructing you over the shoulder, this can be quite tricky.
So armed with just a recipe with one image of the final product, I set out to recreate this recipe. There are quite a few steps, a lot of ingredients and takes a bit of time. The resulting dish was quite delightful. There weren’t any difficult techniques to learn and no special equipment was needed. The original recipe involved smoking the potato puree which I skipped.
Instead of using Langoustines, prawns were used instead. (You can get frozen langoustines in Sainsburys.) I did use up quite a few pots to make the various sauces and lots kitchen equipment that I don’t usually use. It is certainly a lot more complicated than my usual one pot recipes.
The recipe did not give any details about plating up and how to use the various sauces and champagne cream so you can just make up your own version.
Scandinavian Langoustine with potato puree and soured cream
Ingredients
Barigoule
- 50 ml Olive Oil
- 1 pcs Carrot
- 1 pcs Brown Onion
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 2 Bay leaves
- 2 sprigs Thyme
- 1 tbsp Fennel seeds
- 100 ml White wine
- 100 ml White wine vinegar
- 200 ml Water
- 1 Lemon in halves
- 5 Small parsnips
- 300 g Fennel
Potato puree
- 300 g Potatoes
- 50 g Butter
- 100 g Crème fraiche
Langoustine broth
- Shells from the langoustine
- 300 ml Barigoule liquid
- 5 pc Red cherry tomatoes
Champagne cream
- 200 ml Double cream
- 2 tbsp White wine vinegar
Other
- 10 Langoustines
- 100 ml Panko
- 100 g Butter
- 10 cm Leek the white part
Instructions
Barigoule
- Peel the carrot, onion and garlic and chop into smaller pieces.
- Fry them in the olive oil together with the bay leaves, fennel seeds and thyme for about 3 minutes.
- Add all the fluids and the halved lemon.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Split the parsnips and fennel lengthwise.
- Simmer in the broth for 20-30 minutes, until soft.
- Allow to cool in the broth.
Potato puree
- Peel the potatoes and boil them gently in salted water until soft.
- Remove the water and pass the potatoes through a sieve.
- Add the butter with a spatula and add crème fraiche until you have achieved a smooth and creamy texture.
- Add salt to taste.
Langoustine broth
- Roast the langoustine shells in the oven for approximately 5 min at 150°.
- Place in a saucepan with halved tomatoes and strain the Barigoule liquid into the pan.
- Bring to the boil and steep for 5 minutes.
- Strain into a clean saucepan.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
Champagne cream
- Mix vinegar and double cream, add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
- Let steep for 5 minutes, then whisk lightly.
- Cool until serving.
Other
- Shell the langoustines according to the instructions, place in fridge.
- Slice the leek so all guests get one slice each, steam for 5 minutes.
- Warm leek with parsley root and fennel in the oven with some Barigoule liquid.
- Bread the backs of langoustines with panko, fry gently in browned butter on the back only.
Notes
Instead of buying panko breadcrumbs, you can make some by pulsing some bread in a food processor.