Sériole or Sériole Couronnée – The Amberjack or Greater Amberjack in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 
The Greater Amberjack.
Photograph courtesy of NOAA Photo Library
www.flickr.com/photos/noaaphotolib/5187507077/

  

Sériole, Seriole, Sériole Couronnée, - Greater Amberjack, Amberjack. The Greater Amberjack is a big fish and can reach 30 kilos (66 lbs) and more. Most of these fish reach close to a meter (3.25’) in length, though they can get even larger. When cooked, with its tasty ivory-to-white meat, it will be offered as steaks, sometimes fried or grilled, but mostly baked and served with a sauce. Nevertheless, when I have seen the Greater Amberjack on menus in France, its texture has meant that it was often chosen for a Tatare, Carpaccio, en Escabèche or Ceviche. I enjoyed an exceptional Tatare de Sériole in Sète on Southern France’s Mediterranean coast, and a noteworthy Steak de Sériole in Bordeaux on France’s Atlantic coast.

The Greater Amberjack is found all over the world, including France’s Caribbean Departments. In Martinique, it is called Limon and in Guadeloupe Amberjack.

Amberjacks
Photograph courtesy of Enrico Strocchi
https://www.flickr.com/photos/strocchi/51496676517/sizes/l/

When a menu with Sériole in French is translated into English as Amberjack while correct, it may be confused with its cousins who also have amberjack in their name. Despite the possible confusion, the Amberjack on menus along France’s Mediterranean coasts will always be the Greater Amberjack. The Greater Amberjack owns the Med.

Greater Amberjack on French menus:

Pavé de Sériole à la Plancha, Arôme de Vanille  – A thick cut of Amberjack cooked on the Plancha and flavored with vanilla.  A Plancha (Planxa in Basque) is a Basque cooking tool that uses a solid, thick, flat steel sheet that achieves a taste somewhere between grilling and frying. The modern plancha may look like the flat cooking plate of a fast-food hamburger joint, but look again carefully; it has three times the thickness of steel. The Plancha produces a very even heat, requiring very little oil with its resulting unique taste. The Basques claim ownership of the plancha, as do the Spanish. 

Catch your own Greater Amberjack.

Photograph courtesy of Fish Rules.

Filet De Sériole a l'Orange et Coriandre Fraîche, Salade d'Algues et Echalotes - A fillet of Amberjack flavored with orange and fresh coriander and served with a seaweed and shallot salad. Seaweed has been part of French cuisine long before Japanese cuisine reached Europe, and now France exports seaweed to Japan. 

 The two best-selling French seaweeds are Porphyre, called Nori in Japanese and traditionally used to wrap sushi and onigiri; the second is Fougère de Mer, Wakamé in Japanese. This seaweed is most often seen in Miso Soup and salads.

   

Grilled Amberjack
Photograph courtesy of Gloria Cabada-Leman
https://www.flickr.com/photos/67238971@N04/7846416890/

  

Tartare de Sériole de Méditerranée aux Framboises – A Greater Amberjacy Tartar from The Mediterranean flavored with raspberries.

Carpaccio de Sériole, Huile de Sésame et Yuzu – A Greater Amberjack Carpaccio prepared with sesame oil and flavored with yuzu. (Yuzu is a member of the citrus family that originated in China, though it is considered Japanese. Yuzu has a taste somewhere between that of a grapefruit and an orange).

Greater Amberjack Teriyaki with Yuzu Flavor

Photograph courtesy of Jun Seita

www.flickr.com/photos/jseita/6854027879/

   

Sériole, Jus Vert, Émulsion de Pommes de Terre a l'Anis Sauvage – Greater Amberjack served with a cold green onion vinaigrette sauce and accompanied by a thick potato and wild anise sauce.

   

Catch your own Amberjack
Photograph courtesy of WIDTTF
https://www.flickr.com/photos/widttf/3589891879/

Escabèche de Sérioe, Citron Vert – Greater Amberjack marinated and served in lime juice. An Escabèche is made with marinated raw fish or seafood: with, some recipes call for smoked fish and smoked seafood. Unless the menu indicates otherwise, the fish or shellfish offered will have been marinated in wine vinegar; herbs and spices; here, fresh lime juice replaces the vinegar. Rightly or wrongly, many chefs use the terms Escabèche and Ceviche interchangeably, and no significant damage is done. The history of these dishes may be different, but in France, in the kitchen, their preparation is not so different, and the name used is the chef’s call.

  

Slicing Lime

Photograph courtesy of Didriks

www.flickr.com/photos/dinnerseries/5062084841/ 

  

On menus around the world, the Greater Amberjack and the yellowtail Amberjack may be confused on the menu. However, when Sériole is on the menu in France, it will be this locally caught member of the family, the Greater Amberjack. The Yellowtail Amberjack is found in subtropical waters. These two fish are cousins, and apart from the real experts' no one will notice the difference when the fish is cooked and served with a sauce.

To solve the confusion between the Yellowtail Amberjack

and the Yellowfin tuna

There are a number of fish called Yellowtail, and none are related to the Yellowfin Tuna, the Albacore Thon à Nageoires Jaunes in French.  The Yellowfin Tuna is the Tuna sold as Chicken of the Sea or White Tuna in the USA. It is not found in the Mediterranean.

The Amberjack on your menu in Japan.

In Japan, the Amberjack on your menus for sushi is probably the Japanese Amberjack called Hamachi as sushi; the fish itself is called Buri. 

Sériole - Greater Amberjack in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan – círvia, cèrvia ), (Dutch - grote geelstaart, barnsteenmakreel), (German – gelbschwanzmakrele), (Italy – alici, alicosa, seriola, seriola di dumeril), (Spanish - pez de limón, seriloa, serviola), (Latin - seriola dumerili). 

Sériole - Greater Amberjack in other languages:

(Arabic (Lebanese) – intyâs), (Chinese (Mandarin) - dù shì shī, Gāo tĭ shī, 红甘鲹), (Danish - stor ravfisk), (Greek – mανάλι, magiatiko), (Hawaiin – kahala), (Hebrew – intias, seriol Atlanti, seriloa, - שולה סריול אטלנטי, אינטיאס), (Japanese – kanpachu), (Portuguese - charuteiro-catarino), (Tagalog – tonto).

 

--------------------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman 
Copyright 2010,  2019, 2023.
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com 

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