For our second culinary stop, here we are in Puy at the 7 Instant brasserie. The chef, Richard Essandja, cooks salmon trout, which was raised a few kilometers away, in the waters of Vourzac and whose fillet rests on a bed of fish broth and cabbage.
Ingredients
A nice fillet of Vourzac trout (for one person), green lentils, vegetables: carrot, zucchini, brick pastry, red cabbage, lemon, fish broth prepared the day before, unsalted butter (to pearl , feed the trout), salt, pepper, five berry mixture, Espelette pepper powder, crème fraîche, raspberry coulis.
Temps
It takes approximately 45 minutes, taking into account the day before preparing the broth.
Astuce (s)
The fish broth which is presented in a deep plate is seasoned when serving with a little lemon juice (a few drops) for acidity and especially the discoloration effect: the purplish color of the cabbage becomes pink.
The Vourzac trout sees all the colors
“Here I am again a fisherman this morning, a freshwater fisherman. And I have every intention, after the shad and the eel, to continue on this momentum, the alphabet being my accomplice: the barbel, the carp, the chub… Three fishing trips in perspective, in the meantime trout…”. The Loire and its fish, what a great program! With our sybaritic inclination, lover of good food, we will not go fishing with Maurice Genevoix any more than we will continue the inventory of his “bestiary”. But let's nevertheless focus on the trout. We will dispense with teasing the predators that inhabit our beautiful rivers. That of Vourzac, of which chef Richard Essandja has already drawn the nets, will be more than enough to sustain itself and delight our fine palates.
Our choice and that of the chef therefore fell on a fish with delicate and pink flesh, called salmon trout, of a good size (not the trout portion), say 200 g will do the job. It will be served with an orange mousse (to reproduce the recipe we will take care to have a siphon), a julienne of vegetables (cooked “English style”), all accompanied by a pinch of green lentils from the Sabarot house.
You don't change a winning team
For the purposes of our weekly column of which we are delivering the second chapter, we decided to stop at the 7 instants brasserie in Puy-en-Velay. Its opulent gable stands at the corner of Place du Marché covered and Rue Julien. The chef therefore invites us to taste this trout with its delicate aroma and which will have been “pearled” in the frying pan, “abundantly fed with butter” recommends the cook with a generous nature, before spending it for three or four minutes in the oven. at 200° C. Be careful not to overcook it or it will dry out! No need to season it because it is presented on a bed of cabbage broth which is already very distinctive and which may have been prepared the day before with leftover fish. For example, ask your fishmonger to reserve some heads to prepare the broth which will have cooked for around forty minutes.
Richard, the chef de cuisine of 7 Instant, is associated with Frédéric Tourret. Both were previously at the head of Zèbre, the small establishment on rue Vibert which was bought by a former employee of the Distillery. The brewery has only changed ownership since mid-August. The room is the domain of Frédéric who manages 45 seats, plus the terrace in the summer, compared to around twenty previously. Some people remember: 7 Instant was called Archers before. The house once housed a delicatessen, or even the salon of the famous hairdresser Ponot Pédro.
Step by step, the 32-year-old chef brings his personal touch, through desserts in particular, his guilty pleasure. He gradually revisits the restaurant's menu without abandoning the great classics which are the prerogative of the place. Classics from the traditional French brasserie, such as the steak tartare now prepared on the table, or last summer the sea bass and sea bream cut in the dining room.
Frédéric and Richard favor local and seasonal products. 7 Instant flirts with Lyon specialties, brioche sausage, andouillette, calf's head from Bobosse, famous charcuterie from Halles Paul Bocuse. By the way, facing the Halle du Puy, there is no lack of taste. The restaurant, like others in the neighborhood, lives in symbiosis with the Halle ponote. “We are not competitors,” assures Frédéric.
Before settling in Le Puy, Richard worked for a long time in the kitchen and as a charcutier and caterer in Paris at the Pou house, or at the Trois brasseurs. Nothing to do with Ponot restaurants. “We did,” he says, “a thousand seats per weekend within a brigade of 14 cooks.” Richard has been passionate about cooking since a young age. Even before acquiring professional training, he attended a good school in his family. “I only reproduced what my mother and my grandmother did,” he explains modestly and with a touch of emotion.
Frédéric and Richard can count on loyal staff. In the kitchen, Donovan, Nelson and Fernando. In the Alexandre, Amandine and Christale room. Frédéric cultivates “team spirit” and the cocooning side of the small brasserie which borrows a little from the Lyonnais cork its abundant decor, objects found by Gatsby (furniture and decoration), on the walls of paintings by Nadine Pleynet. 7 Instant is open Tuesday to Saturday. You can come here by reservation or not.
Trout is good food
The Vourzac aquaculture farm (Sanssac-l'Église) receives the 36 g fry which come from Isère, bringing them up to 2 kg (at two years) for the largest trout. Philippe Emery, fish farming manager explains. “To make smoked, the ideal is to obtain a fillet close to 400 g. There is approximately 50% loss, between the viscera, the head, the tail.”
The fish farm sells packs of 400 and 150 g of smoked trout. Fresh fish is available in portioned trout or 250 g fillets. The largest fillets are used to make paving stones or can be sold whole. They are taken from trout weighing approximately 1.7 kg.
In Sanssac-l'Église, trout often grow more slowly than in certain fish farms. “Where it takes us two years, in Isére, the fish reaches the same weight in 12 or 14 months, depending on the diet and the water circuit. We depend on the river, while some fish farms are closed circuit. They control both the oxygen in the water and the temperature, the two indicators which determine growth” explains Philippe Emery. The Vourzac is renowned for being a fairly constant river in temperature and oxygen quality. For breeding purposes, water is required at around 12°C. In aquaculture, there are two feeding methods, with or without PAT (land animal products). The Vourzac farm has chosen fish meal. “We need to rebalance with plant proteins so as not to degrade the quality of the water, because trout produce a lot of nitrogen,” explains Philippe Emery.
With a capacity of 30 tonnes of fish, the aquaculture farm operates with rather reasonable densities of around 30 kg per cubic meter. “We feed the trout, of course, we push them but we still leave it to the weather,” assures the operator. The Emery family took over fish farming during the summer of 2020. The business employs seven people. She sells directly, in her store and on the markets. It has developed a whole range of processed products.
Philippe Suc
