This is a dish that I made for my better half during our anniversary. It’s basically fish inside a fish pastry case! 🙂 Bouchee is a small flaky pastry shell and the word poissons means “fish” in French. There’s apparently only one manufacturer who makes bouchees poissons from a Google Image search.
This is my interpretation of Bouchee a la Reine – a French pastry dish but without the bechamel.
I bought a 250 gram piece of King Grouper at RM 80 / kg. It cost me slightly over RM 20 and I like this fish due to the relative lack of bones. You will need:
- Fillet of grouper
- Dry white wine
- Fish pastry shells
- Lemons
- Arugula
- Applemint
- Butter
- Salt and pepper to taste
I pan fried the King Grouper with lots of butter to produce a nice sear before removing it from the pan.
The next thing I did was to break down the fillet of King Grouper into smaller pieces so it’ll fit into the fish pastry shells.
I decided to play with my food processor and make an arugula and applemint puree. I had read up on it and blanched the arugula in hot water quickly before removing it and adding lemon juice so it retains that *bright green* color.
However, the arugula and applemint puree turned out to be a bit of a disaster. There was just too little of the wild rocket leaves. 80 grams got processed into barely two tablespoons of watery “puree”. It did taste good though – the acidity from the lemons and the addition of applemint really makes it pop.
Sorry if that oft-repeated pretentious term made you cringe. It made me laugh while typing it too. 
I had the impromptu idea of removing the insides of the bouchees poissons to the white wine reduction sauce and small pieces of King Grouper so there’s pieces of flaky pastry to soak up the liquid.
This has the added benefit of heating up the fish before serving.
I also plucked a bit of basil from our herb garden and added it to the fish pastry shells stuffed with buttered King Grouper. It was so good we finished all four (4) of the bouchees poissons – which has a net weight of 120 grams in addition to the fish! 🙂
Oooo…those fish pastry shells look real neat! Cool!!! Now where can I get those?
I found it at a grocery and it’s 50% off which was why I noticed it. 🙂
It’s RM 19.50. I think some other places have it too, I’ve seen it around. It’s made by this company called Pidy, they have it it various formats but basically the same cover.
I thought they were neat too! Looks like fish, perfect for stuffing with fish!
Awesome! the fish looks good, i like fish with lesser bones too :p
Yup, the fish was a nice cut of King Grouper! 🙂
I prefer cod – that’s my #1 fish but it’s so expensive, it’s hard to eat all the time. Cod would cost twice the price of King Grouper.
You’ll love cod if you don’t like bones too!
wow, looks great!
That’s mate! 🙂
It tasted good too, I heated up the fish pastry shells before stuffing it too! You’ve gotta heat it up or it’ll be cold and unappetizing.
That looks really yummy!
Thanks Mela! 🙂
The arugula and applemint puree was a watery disaster though. I didn’t know 80 grams of rocket leaves will be pulverized into…nothing. Haha!
HB, with that wonderful dinner some dessert creme brulee would be great.
Yeah, we’re planning to buy the butane torch that’s for creme brulee! 🙂
I’ve wanted to get it for a while, you can use it for other stuff too but I reckon we’ll do it after moving. Thanks Vickie!
hey, that’s a good-looking result. it’s more ambitious than i’d have personally dared to attempt, given my limited cooking capabilities, but it definitely has that look that cries out, ‘eat me!!!’ … and if you can pull off cooking fish this well, you can pull off cooking nearly anything very well (or at least that’s what some of us believe) 😀
Thanks Sean! 🙂
Haha! I was flying by the seat of my pants too. I messed up the arugula and applemint puree but it turned out to be a great meal nevertheless.
I actually didn’t plan much, only had an hour and thought fish with white wine reduction and just went on from there. Cheers!
I love this fish in the fish, dear. A combination of flaky pastry at the outside compliments with the expensive king grouper fish makes it into such a cute and yummy dish! I want to have it again, dear…hehe
Thanks dear! <3
I'm glad you like it! I rushed to make this ready for you after work. Haha!
It'll be good to make it again since the puree didn't turn out the way I wanted it - too watery. *hugs*
alamak…sounds very complicated la
It just sounds complicated but it’s not! 🙂
It’s quite easy to cook, since the fish pastry shells are already pre-baked and shaped so all you need to do is to heat ’em up!
I just like to do a lot of purees with my food processor nowadays. Haha!
Looks yummy!
Thanks! I was rushing to get this done before she got back for our anniversary. 🙂