Lieu Jaune – Pollack, the Fish. Pollack is also called Callagh and Coley in the UK. Pollack on French Menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Reeling Pollack in.

Photograph courtesy of Neil Tackaberry

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23629083@N03/20043481533/

Lieu Jaune or Colin  –  Pollack, the fish.  In the UK also called Callagh, Coley, Coalfish, Margate Hake, Dover Hake and Lythe, and in the USA the European Pollock. 

Pollack is a member of the cod family with similar white, flaky meat so that it will often be cooked and served with cod recipes. When offered as poached or baked filets pollack is usually served with a sauce as it on its own it can be somewhat dry.   Pollack grow quite large with many fish weighing in over 8 kilos (18 lbs), so you will be served a fillet. 

  

Filet of baked pollack.

Photograph courtesy of Ewan Munro

https://www.flickr.com/photos/55935853@N00/4485844101/

 

When a fish on a French menu is named Colin then failing some clarification I choose something else.  Colin in France can be the name of any at least three or more fish including Lieu Jaune, pollack, Lieu Noir, saithe, and Merlu, hake.  The other fish have similar tastes and texture; nevertheless, I choose something else because I like to know what I am actually eating.  Using the name Colin just tells me the restaurant is not really sure what they bought. However, confusion exists outside France as well; pollack has many names in the UK and is often mistaken for a family member called walleye pullack in the UK and Alaskan pollock in the USA. 

   

Pollack on French Menus:

 

Filet de Lieu Jaune à l'Huile d'Olive, Risotto de Pommes de Terre au Wakame – Filet of pollack cooked with olive oil and served with a potato risotto flavored with wakame seaweed.

Lieu Jaune Fumé aux Aiguilles de Pin –  Pollack smoked over pine needles.

Le Duo de Lotte et Lieu Jaune Sauce Champagne – A matched serving of monkfish and pollack in a Champagne sauce.

   

A filet of poached pollack.

Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/15065518687/

  

Escalope de Lieu Jaune Pochée au Beurre d'Agrumes – A filet of pollack poached in grapefruit flavored butter.

Dos de Lieu Jaune Avec des Gnocchis de Potimarron aux Algues Nori, Jus de Moules -  A thick cut from the back of a large pollack, (considered the tastiest portion), served with gnocchi made with pumpkin and nori seaweed and flavored with the cooking juices from mussels.

  

A poached pollack steak.

Photograph courtesy of bob walker.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rjw1/2314648984/

    

Pollack in the languages of France’s neighbors:

    

(Catalan - abadejo), (Dutch - pollak), (German – pollack), (Italian –merluzzo giallo) (Spanish –badexo).

    

Connected Posts:

 

Algue or Algue de Mer Seaweed, Edible Seaweed. Algue or Algue de Mer on French Menus.

 

Cabillaud - Cod, the Fish. Cabillaud is Fresh Cod, Morue is Rehydrated Cod. Cod is the Most Important Fish in the World and the Most Popular Fish in France.

 

Champagne the Most Famous Sparkling Wine in the World. Choosing the Champagne that Meets your Sweetness Preferences.

French Olive Oils. Enjoying France's Best Olive Oils.

Lotte or Baudroie - Monkfish. Monkfish on French Menus.

 

Moules - Mussels. Moules Frites and Much More. Mussels on French Menus.

 

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Copyright 2010, 2017.

Cod, the Fish; from Rags to Riches in France. A guest post by Leonhard Becker. –

A dish created for cod, a fish that has gone upmarket.

A guest post by Leonhard Becker.

www.foodicted.com.

French inspired recipes and techniques.

     

    

Cod.

Photograph courtesy of the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs.

 

Cod is found on modern French and other European menus as fresh fish and also when rehydrated and desalted. Cod used to be considered an inexpensive fish and from the 16th through 19th centuries cod was a source of wars over fishing rights, and the right to supply dehydrated and salted cod for the European slave trade.  Everywhere cod was a fish for poor people, and in the UK, from the latter part of the 19th century and until today cod is the back-bone of the famous British fish and chips industry.

    

    

A fish and chips sign in Brighton, England.

Photograph courtesy of Anosmia.

 

Cod, the fish on French menus.

     

When fresh the French call cod cabillaud or morue fraîche; and when on the menu in a dish made from rehydrated cod called morue or stockfish. The versatility of this Atlantic fish shows up throughout Europe, and rehydrated cod is the same fish the Italians call baccalà or bacalao. 

   

 

   

Dehydrated salt cod drying in Henningsvær,

an island fishing village in Northern Norway.

Reconstituted dehydrated cod will be on French menus as morue or stockfish.

Photograph courtesy of  Nicolas Grevet.

      

Cod has won recognition of its distinct, but delicate taste and texture, and that has led to its appearance on more and more menus of fashionable French restaurants. No doubt price increases, due to scarcity, have also played their part in promoting this trend.

The French influence.

    

     

New Salt-Cod Brandade

Photograph by Leonhard Becker.

The creation of a new cod dish.

    

My modern French interpretation, pictured above, illustrates the versatility of cod. This dish is based on a Cordon Bleu Paris recipe and shows cod steaks poached in milk served on a garlic sauce; next to the steak is cod served as purée, on its own called a brandade, but here prepared inside a brick pastry roll, and finally for  the last part of the dish are golden cod croquettes. This dish I prepared using fresh cod, salted for 30 minutes; however, brandade of cod and cod croquettes are usually prepared using reconstituted salted cod.

    

This dish not only show-cases the versatility of cod but also embodies the traditional French approach where a meal is to be enjoyed using all your senses. While the greatest importance is given to the taste of the dish, the French way also requires that the diner appreciate the presentation, and that means creating a combination of colors and shapes. A successful dish allows the diner to engage the scent of the different elements, as well as to feel the textures of each part; the diner may listen to the crack of the crunchy elements or the sizzle that proverbially "sells the steak".

   

Leonhard trained as an economist in Switzerland and England and began a classical banking career after completing university. After five interesting years,  he quit to pursue his childhood dream to become a chef and went to study French haute cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. After his graduation, he continues to push the envelope by facing new challenges including cooking for large groups of friends and experimenting with new dishes. He refuses to cook for money but strives to share his adventures on his blog foodicted.com.

  

Leonhard Becker

A guest post on the blog

Behind the French Menu by Bryan G Newman.

Copyright of Leonard Becker 2013

Cabillaud - Cod, the Fish. Cabillaud is Fresh Cod, Morue is Rehydrated Cod. Cod on French Menus. Cod is the Most Popular Fish in France.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Atlantic Cod.
Photograph courtesy of the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs

  
Cabillaud - Fresh Cod.  
Also on French menus as Morue de l'Atlantique, Morue Fraîche, and Morue Franche. 

 
Morue - France’s very popular reconstituted, dried and salted cod. 
Also on French menus as Stockfish. 
        
Without any question, cod is France’s favorite fish.

      

French chefs do wonders with fresh cod's flavorful, white, flaky, meat which is at its best when lightly cooked.  Fresh cod will usually be simply served with a butter sauce, though sometimes a crème fraîche and white wine sauce may accompany fresh cod.

           

Cod in cider with Swiss chard and fried mussels.
Photograph courtesy of Arnold Gatilao
www.flickr.com/photos/arndog/5890401861  

Fresh cod on French menus:     

     

Cabillaud aux Herbes –- Fresh cod cooked with herbs; usually cod cooked in this manner will be accompanied by a butter and wine sauce. Ask.
   

Cabillaud a la Provençal –  Fresh cod in the manner of Provence. This will be fresh cod lightly fried in olive oil with tomatoes, garlic, onions, courgettes, zucchinis in the USA, aubergines, eggplants in the USA.
   

Fish and Chips
Deep-fried cod in a beer batter from a UK chippy.
Photograph courtesy of velkr0.
www.flickr.com/photos/velkr0/3605869754/

La Morue Fraîche Saisie à la Plancha  aux Herbes et Sucs de Jeunes Légumes –- Fresh cod very lightly fried/grilled on a hot, thick, iron sheet called a plancha. Here, the fresh cod is prepared with herbs and flavored with the juices pressed from young vegetables. Cooking with a plancha uses a tiny amount of oil and is popular all over Southern France; it is also claimed as their own by the Basque who call their plancha a planxa.

              

Aioli de Morue Fraîche, Legumes Croquants  - Fresh cod flavored with Provence’s famous garlic flavored mayonnaise accompanied by crispy and crunchy, but very lightly fried, vegetables.
      

  
Steamed black cod in salsa verde
Photograph courtesy of Gnawme

www.flickr.com/photos/normevangelista/4895292883/

    

Dos de Cabillaud à la Crème d' Ail – A thick cut of cod served with a garlic flavored cream sauce.
   

Morue and or Stockfish

The recipes and history of dried and salted cod in France:

     

On menus, the French names Morue, without any additional name, or Stockfish indicates that the dish will be using the popular and traditional desalted and rehydrated dried salted cod.

   

In pre-refrigeration times dried and salted cod was a massive industry; it existed for hundreds of years, and in a smaller form still exists today. In many countries. other than France, the words used are baccala, bacalao or baclhau, while some countries the same or similar words are used for fresh cod; the confusion should not be too surprising considering the age of the industry.  In Italy, reconstituted cod is called stoccafisso; it is the key ingredient in that traditional, and much-loved dish, bacala' alla Vicentina, cod in the Venetian manner.

   

Until thirty or forty years ago the French really didn't bother with fresh cod; reconstituted and desalted cod was considered superior. Stockfish is one of the old Scandinavian names for this dried fish, and it was the Scandinavians who supplied France as they still do today. Dried salted cod was essential, and not just for long sea voyages; it was the only way to transport and conserve sea-fish in areas far from the sea.

   

Salted cod drying on racks in Iceland;
very similar to those of over 1,000 years ago.
Photograph courtesy of Thom Quine.
www.flickr.com/photos/quinet/3297973917/

  

To prepare dried salted cod for cooking requires experience and patience; it takes three or four days of soaking and changing the water to have the cod reconstituted.  Most French homes are pleased to let the fishmongers do this part of the work.

On your menu rehydrated and desalted cod may be in one of these dishes:
    

Piquillos Farcis à la Morue - Rehydrated cod stuffed with the famous, peeled and pickled red peppers from the Pay de Basque, the Basque country in South Western France. Piquillos peppers are sweet and tasty not spicy.

    

    
Piquillio peppers stuffed with goat's cheese.
Photograph courtesy of felicia.day
       

Accras de Morue - Reconstituted salt cod made into fritters and deep fried. This dish was brought to France from its Caribbean départements of Guadeloupe and Martinique; there it began as a recipe created by slaves. Until two hundred years ago these islands were France's primary suppliers of sugar and all the work was done by slaves the French settlers had imported from Africa. The slave’s most significant source of carbohydrates was imported salted and dried cod, and many of the same dishes are now 

Salade Tiède de Morue et Pommes de Terre –  A salad made with warm pieces of rehydrated and desalted cod and served with warm boiled potatoes.

  

Brandade de Morue –  One of the most popular traditional dishes made with re-hydrated and desalted salt.  There are many brandade-like recipes, under different names that will be on a French menu. In most of the recipes, the cod is prepared with garlic and olive oil and some recipes will add cream or milk; my personal favorite is a wonderful version made with mashed potatoes.

        

Deep fried Brandade de Morue.
Photograph courtesy of Arnold Gatilao
www.flickr.com/photos/arndog/4143118478/

      

For those who, like me, enjoy visiting food markets, Nîmes has an active and diverting food and fish market despite its relatively small size; unsurprisingly it is called Les Halles. The market serves both retail and wholesale customers, and it is right in the center of the town. From my own experience, the vendors are knowledgeable and most are helpful; but you need to get there before 12:00, then the begin to close for the day.     

   

Brandade de Merluche – Another favorite and traditional cod-family fish recipe created from re-hydrated, de-salted fish, and it is very similar to the brandade de morue. Here, another member of the cod family, merluche, also called lieu noir is on the menu; that is saithe or pollock in English.

    

Estoficado, Stoficado and or Stockfish à la Niçoise, (Estoco-fi à la Niçardo in Provençal).  One of the most famous cod dishes of Nice, the Mediterranean city so famous for its impact on Provencal and French cuisine. The olive oil used in this stew of rehydrated cod, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, and Nice's olives will be Nice’s famous AOP olive oil.  

  

Estofinado – Another version of Estoficado, this one from the Midi-Pyrénées and the Auvergne made using walnut oil rather than olive oil.

 

The Scandinavians, or at the least the early inhabitants of Greenland, claim the discovery of North America from long before Columbus discovered Central and South America.  We know that they did discover North America because their fishermen and women left traces of temporary settlements on the North American coast close to their cod fishing grounds. These settlements were where the Greenlanders stayed for the winter when it was too cold and stormy for the long sea voyage home. On the sites of these temporary farms were also found traces of their traditional wood racks for drying cod; the same type of racks are still used today.

        

Apart from being a tasty fish cod, is and was a political fish; it is a fish that France and other countries have been to war over. Long before the oil producers and their excise of economic power, seafaring nations fought all over the world for the control of spices, and after spices came wars over fishing rights with conflicts over cod fishing rights leading the battle.

     

Part of the cod fishing fleet at Howth
Howth is a fishing village and an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland.
Photograph courtesy of William Murphy
www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/3872533045/

 For an excellent read as well as insight into the effects of cod fishing on the world's economies, the problems of overfishing, and much more read “Cod ” a book by Mark Kurlansky. It is a unique insight into the history of this valuable fish. Penguin published the paperback edition I read.

   

The mystery of skrei in the Alsace.

Skrei is the Norwegian name for dehydrated and de-salted Atlantic cod, and I saw skrei as an entrée on a menu in a restaurant in Alsace, France. At that time, I had no idea what skrei was, and the chef-owner did not know any other name; he just said that this was a large dried and salted sea fish similar to morue, dried, and salted cod.

We had eaten in this restaurant before and enjoyed everything, so we tried the skrei, which also was excellent; it had been prepared in individual pastry casings and was and served with a sauce.   

    

At the table, the nearest fish that I could associate with the taste and texture was cod and I already knew that this was a cod family member. Through the internet and FishBase, I would find out that skrei was the Norwegian name for salted and dried cod, morue in French. Since then I have spent some fruitless moments considering how this Norwegian name arrived in Alsace when elsewhere in France the Scandinavian name stockfish was used. Why a Norwegian name? None of my musings come close to a logical answer. Does anyone have an idea of  how the name skrei came to the Alsace? 

 

Fresh cod in the languages of Frances neighbors:

   

(Catalan -  bacallà), (Dutch - kabeljauw), (German –- kabeljau, dorsch), (Italian -merluzzo bianco ),(Spanish  - bacalao, bacalao del Atlántico, bacallà).

    

Fresh cod in other languages:

(Chinese (Mandarin) - 大西洋鱈), (Danish - Almindelig torsk (Greek   - gados  ) (Dutch - kabeljauw), (Hebrew  –  shibut, shibbut zefoni, cod , bakala - בקלה), (Japanese – madara, tara), (Korean –대구- daegu),  (Norwegian – skrei), (Polish – dorsz), (Portuguese -  bacalhau), (Rumanian – cod). (Russian -  треска -  treska),  (Swedish - torsk),  (Tagalog - bakalaw), (Latin, Atlantic cod - gadus morhua).

Most of the translations for fresh cod in other languages have come from: FishBase Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2013. FishBase and a few have come from Google Translate ©.

   

Connected posts:
   

Ail - Garlic. Garlic in French Cuisine.

  

Aioli in French Cuisine. Aioli on French Menus. France's Much Loved Garlicky Mayonnaise. Enjoying Le Grand Aioli in France.
  

Cidre - Cider in France. France's Fabulous Ciders, Sparkling Ciders and Basque Cider.

    

Crème Fraîche. What is Crème Fraîche? Why is Crème Fraîche Part of so Many of France’s Famous Sauces and More
     

Dining well and differently in Nice. The Unique Cuisine from the City and the Comté de Nice 
     
Do Herbs and Spices, in France, Begin with Garlic?

        

Herbs and Spices in the French Kitchen II. Basilic or Herbe Royal - Basil, Common Basil or Sweet Basil.  

   

Huiles d'Olive Française - French Olive oils. Enjoying France's Best Olive Oils.

  

Moules - Mussels. Moules Frites and Much More. Mussels on French Menus.

 The Plancha or Planxa in French Cuisine. The Plancha on French Menus,

   

The Butter Sauces on Your Menu. Three of France's Popular Butter Sauces. Part I.

  
Why is the AOC becoming an AOP on French Foods, Wines and More?
  

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases

on

French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google. Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 400 articles that include over 3,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations. 

    

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010,2013, 2018.