Oeufs au Truite Choron

Delicious!  Trout and poached eggs with choron sauce is a nice elegant way to start a day!

  
     Choron sauce is a tomato flavored hollandaise.  The flavor of choron is perfect with eggs and trout.  The choron sauce for this recipe is a classic choron.  There are several variations and modifications of sauce choron.  One of my favorite choron variations is creole choron.  I will post a recipe for creole choron in this recipe blog sometime soon.  A modern New Orleans master chef created creole choron for breaded soft shell crab about 25 years ago.  

     Trout and egg breakfast entrees are popular in mountain stream region restaurants and resorts.  Campers who catch trout in the morning do like to cook a hearty breakfast of grilled trout and eggs.  Plain and simple grilled trout and eggs is a fine tasting campfire breakfast!  

     Trout and eggs with choron sauce is commonly on brunch menus in New Orleans.  Locally grown creole tomatoes are usually used to make choron sauce in Louisiana.  

      As you have seen in my past breakfast recipe blog entries, I never post a boring breakfast recipe.  This trout and eggs choron is a great eye opener!

   
     Hollandaise Sauce Recipe: 
     Melt 4 ounces of unsalted butter in a small sauce pot over medium heat.

     Cook the butter, till the milk fats evaporate and till the butter gives off a light hazelnut aroma. 

     Take the pan off of the heat.

     Clarify the butter by pouring it through a fine mesh strainer into a second small sauce pot and leave the butter solids on the bottom of the first pot.

     Discard the butter milk fat solids. 

     Keep the clarified butter warm over very low heat.

     Place 2 egg yolks into a small mixing bowl.

     Add 1 teaspoon of warm water to the egg yolks while stirring. 

     Note:  Add about a 1/2 teaspoon of warm water per egg yolk.  This will make the eggs easy to control while whisking.  The small amount of water will keep the eggs from congealing unevenly.  Too much water added to the yolks will later cause the whisking process to take way too much time.  Do not add lemon juice at the beginning of making a hollandaise sauce!  The sauce will be disproportionately lemon flavored if you do so.  That is a mistake that many chefs make.

     Whisk the egg yolks in a mixing bowl over a double boiler set on medium low/low heat. 

     Constantly whisk, non stop, till the eggs souffle (puff up) and ribbons appear from the whisk.  The egg yolks will become a pale yellow color at this time.

     Remove the mixing bowl from the double boiler and immediately whisk the eggs while adding the warm butter one teaspoon at a time, till the eggs start emulsifying with the butter. 

     Return the start of the hollandaise to the double boiler.  (You can not stop whisking at this point or the egg yolks will sieze!) 

     Very thin stream the melted butter into the eggs while whisking constantly, till the egg sauce is formed.  (The classic proportion of butter to eggs is 1 1/2 to 2 ounces of butter to one egg yolk!)

     Remove the mixing bowl from the double boiler.

     Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice.

     Add 1 pinch of white pepper.

     Add 1 pinch of cayenne pepper.

     Add 1 pinch of sea salt.

     The hollandaise sauce should have a hint of lemon flavor and it should not taste like a lemon sauce.  The sauce should be rich and it should have a medium consistency.  Add a few drops of warm water if the sauce is too thick.  The hazelnut aroma of the clarified butter is the key flavor!   The cayenne pepper flavor should be barely noticeable. 

     Place the Hollandaise in a small ceramic bowl. 

     Set the ramekin in a bain marie that is set on very low heat to keep it warm.

     Stir the sauce occasionally.

     Hollandaise is a French mother sauce that is used for hundreds of recipes.  The basic hollandaise recipe never changes!
     Note:  I will also post the very old Le Cordon Bleu of Paris hollandaise recipe sometime soon.  This old French recipe has many extra ingredients in the recipe, so it is more like a modified hollandaise sauce and not a true mother sauce.  An accurate probe thermometer is necessary for this old hollandaise recipe version. 

  
     Choron Sauce Recipe:
     Place a small sauce pot over medium heat.

     Add 1 generous splash of red wine vinegar.

     Add 1 chopped shallot.

     Add 1/4 of chopped ripe tomato.

     Add 1/2 cup of water.

     Add 1/2 tablespoon of tomato paste.

     Simmer and reduce the tomato mixture, till it becomes thick paste consistency.  

     Press the tomato mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl.

     Add enough of the tomato paste mixture to the hollandaise, while whisking, to give the sauce a pale orange color.  Keep the choron sauce warm in a bain marie.

   
     Baked Trout Recipe: 
     Select 1 whole scaled, gutted, whole rainbow trout that has the head attached.  (Traditionally, leaving the head on a whole trout is part of the presentation and it shows the customer that the rainbow trout is fresh.)
     Cut through the rib bones that are attached to flesh side of the back bone, without damaging the skin. 

     Slice under the cut rib bones to ease their removal.  

     Pull all of the bones out of the trout.  

     Trim the gill fat flap sections.  

     Retain the fins.

     Brush a baking pan with melted unsalted butter.  

     Set the trout on the pan.  

     Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice over the trout.  

     Pour 1 3 ounces of dry white wine over the trout.
     Drizzle a little bit of melted unsalted butter over the trout.
     Sprinkle sea salt and black pepper over the trout.  

     Place the trout in a 350 degree oven.

     Bake the trout till it becomes fully cooked.

  
     Oeufs au Truite Choron: 
     Poached 2 eggs in gently boiling salted water over medium heat.  (Never add vinegar to egg poaching water!  Vinegar changes the texture of the egg whites into a rubbery texture.)  

     Use a spatula to slide the baked trout onto a serving platter.

     Place the poached eggs on top of the trout.

     Spoon a generous amount of the choron sauce over the eggs and trout.

     Garnish with parsley sprigs and lemon slices.
   
     The light tomato flavor of the choron sauce is so tasty with eggs and trout.  Fresh rainbow trout is very light in texture.  Rainbow trout has a delicious savory flavor that is nice for breakfast.  This is an old school French entree that still has a place in the present age.  This recipe's presentation is uncomplicated and yet very appealing.  This is a very comfortable gourmet brunch recipe.  Yum!  ...   Shawna