Cucumber Plant with Mullet, Parsley Purée and White Wine Sauce
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Description
A sophisticated Nordic dish featuring fresh cucumber plant components paired with tender mullet and a rich white wine sauce.
Ingredients
Cucumber plant
- 4 cucumber plants
Mullet
- 150 g mullet with no skin
- 5 g clarified butter
- Salt
Foaming white wine sauce
- 300 g dry white wine
- 24 g chopped white onion
- 50 g intense mussel stock
- 50 g cream
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 0,5 g lecithin
- 0,5 g sucro
- 0.2 g xantana
- Salt
Parsley purée
- 400 g flat-leaved parsley leaves
- 200 g spinach
- 1 g xantana
- Salt
Assembly
- Herbs per person
- 3 lemon verbena
- 2 chervil
- 2 flowering stems from red oxalis
- 2 sorrel shoots
Instructions
Cucumber plant
- Cut the top 20 cm off the cucumber plant and save for later.
- Pluck the little cucumbers with flowers from the stem.
- Pluck the small and big leaves from the stem.
Mullet
- Season the mullet with salt, cut into 30 gram pieces and vacuum with some clarified butter.
- Cook the mullet in a water bath at 58°C for 5-6 minutes depending on how thick it is.
Foaming white wine sauce
- Reduce white wine and white onion to 200 gram and then blend.
- Blend the cream, butter, clam mussel stock and reduced white wine.
- Heat the white wine sauce to 60°C.
- Blend lecithin, sucro and xantana into the white wine sauce.
- Sieve the white wine sauce through a net and season with salt.
Parsley purée
- Boil parsley and spinach until tender. Then place in ice water.
- Squeeze out all the liquid from the parsley and spinach.
- Freeze parsley and spinach in a Pacojet beaker.
- Run the frozen parsley purée 4 times on a Pacojet.
- Blend the parsley purée smooth with some water and xantana.
- Season with salt and sieve the parsley purée through a net.
Assembly
- Boil the stem of the cucumber plant for 30 seconds and season with salt.
- Boil the small cucumbers for 10 seconds without the flower touching the water and season with salt.
- Place the stem of the cucumber plant on a plate and then spray parsley purée next to the top of the plant and the bottom.
- Place the two little cucumbers in their own parsley purée.
- Place the mullet on the parsley purée at the bottom of the plant.
- Cover the mullet and parsley purée with a big cucumber leave in the bottom and a small leave at the top.
- Decorate the big cucumber leave with chervil, sorrel, lemon verbena and the stem of a flowering red oxalis.
- Foam the sauce with a hand blender and then split it with clarified butter.
- Apply the foam when serving at the table.
Notes
- For best results, use fresh cucumber plants and high-quality mullet.
- The white wine sauce can be prepared in advance and reheated gently before serving.
- If mussel stock is unavailable, substitute with fish stock for a similar flavor.
- Serve immediately for the best texture and flavor.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Scandinavian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 350
- Sugar: 3
- Sodium: 400
- Fat: 20
- Carbohydrates: 10
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 25
- Cholesterol: 60
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Frequently Asked Questions
What do lecithin, sucro, and xantana do in the white wine sauce?
These are modernist stabilizers used to create the “foaming” texture in the sauce. Lecithin (0.5 g) and sucro (0.5 g) are emulsifiers that allow the sauce to be foamed with a hand blender, while xantana (0.2 g) adds body to prevent the foam from collapsing. The finished sauce is blended to a foam and then split with clarified butter at the table.
What is a Pacojet and is it required for the parsley purée?
The Pacojet is a high-end professional machine that micro-purees frozen ingredients without thawing them; this recipe runs the frozen parsley-spinach mixture through it 4 times. It is required equipment for this exact Nordic fine-dining preparation — a home blender will not replicate the ultra-smooth, vibrant result that a Pacojet achieves. 
What is the precise cooking temperature and time for the mullet?
The mullet is vacuum-packed with clarified butter and cooked sous vide in a water bath at exactly 58°C for 5–6 minutes, with the time depending on how thick the pieces are. Each piece is cut to approximately 30 grams before packaging.
