James Beard's New Fish Cookery (25 page)

GRILLED SOLE

This, naturally, is the simplest way to prepare a whole sole or fillets. A charcoal fire is perfection, but gas or electricity does nearly as well. Give it a good bath of melted butter or oil. Broil about 3 inches from the flame according to the Canadian cooking theory (pages 9–10). Baste it with butter or oil while it is cooking. Salt and pepper before removing from the grill.

Serve the broiled sole with some of the pan drippings, or with lemon or lemon butter. If you prefer a sauce, serve Hollandaise (pages 25–26), Béarnaise (page 26), tomato (page 23), or mustard (page 23). Anchovy butter (page 32), parsley butter (page 33), and caviar butter (page 32) are also all excellent with the grilled fillets.

If you want to save yourself the work of cleaning a broiling pan, line it with metal foil before you put in your fish.

VARIATIONS

1. Cook the grilled fish in the oven at 425° according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 8). Then brush it with butter and crumbs and run under the broiler to brown nicely.

2. Serve the grilled sole with steamed clams and mussels.

SAUTÉED SOLE

When you sauté either the whole fish or the fillets, you have a choice of many interesting ways to garnish and sauce the fish.

SOLE MEUNIÉRE

Dredge the fish or fillets well with flour. Sauté quickly in butter or oil according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10). Turn once during the cooking process and salt and pepper to taste. Remove to a hot platter; add the butter from the pan and a goodly sprinkling of lemon juice and chopped parsley. This simple method of preparation seems to bring out the true flavor of the fish about as well as any other way.

VARIATIONS

1. After dishing onto the hot platter, sauce with some beurre noisette (page 31) and garnish with lemon slices.

2. Add anchovy butter and lemon and garnish with strips of anchovy.

3. Peel, seed, and chop 1/2 pound very ripe tomatoes. Let them cook down in 4 tablespoons butter until they are a paste. Season with a little grated garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 11/2 tablespoons curry powder. Add 1/2 cup white wine and allow the mixture to simmer for 1/2 hour. Pour over the sautéed sole.

4. Sauté slices of eggplant or summer squash until golden brown. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place sautéed sole on these slices, surround with freshly steamed rice, and serve with a tomato sauce (page 23).

SOLE À LA TSAROVITZ

3 cups mashed potatoes

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon each of chopped parsley, chives, chervil

Salt

6 tablespoons butter

4 large fillets of sole

SAUCE

1 tablespoon chopped shallot
or
green onion

1/2 cup white wine
or
dry vermouth

1/2 cup tomato paste

Beurre manié (page 475)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the potatoes with the egg yolks and the seasonings. Beat them well, form into thin flat cakes, and cook them in butter on a griddle or in a frying pan until they are nicely browned on both sides. Sauté the fillets as in the preceding recipe. Top the potato cakes with the sautéed fish and serve with the sauce.

Sauce.
Add the shallot to the pan in which the fish was sautéed and let it cook for a few minutes. Add the white wine, swirl it around a bit, then add the tomato paste and blend well. Add the beurre manié and stir until it is nicely blended and thick. Taste for seasoning and pour over the fish.

VARIATION

Instead of the tomato sauce, garnish the fillets with sautéed mushroom caps and serve with a Hollandaise sauce (pages 25–26).

FILLETS À LA CECILY

6 fillets of sole

1 cup sauce duxelles (page 28)

Flour

1 egg

Bread crumbs

Butter
or
oil

2 cups cooked, buttered spinach

Grated Parmesan cheese

Beurre noisette (page 31)

Lemon slices

Choose long fillets for this dish. Spread each one well with the duxelles and fold over once. Dip in flour, beaten egg, and crumbs, and sauté in butter or oil according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10). Arrange the fillets on a bed of cooked, buttered spinach, sprinkle with grated cheese, and run under the broiler for a minute to brown on top. Serve with beurre noisette poured over the fish and a garnish of lemon slices.

SOLE GAVARNI

5 or 6 green and red peppers

Olive oil

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

1 clove garlic

4 tablespoons butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

6 fillets of sole

Flour

6 tablespoons butter

Cut the peppers into thin strips and sauté in olive oil until just soft. In another pan, sauté the mushrooms and garlic in butter; salt and pepper to taste. Dredge the fillets in flour and sauté in butter according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10). When the fish is cooked, serve it on a bed of the mushrooms topped with the sautéed peppers.

SOLE À L’INDIENNE

1 onion, chopped

Butter
or
oil

1 cup rice

1 tablespoon curry powder

Broth

4 fillets cut in small pieces

Flour

6 tablespoons olive oil

Curry sauce (pages 22, 29)

Sauté the onion in butter or oil until tender, add the rice, and brown quickly. Add the curry powder and enough boiling broth (or water) to rise 1 inch above the rice. Bake in a 350° oven until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed, adding more liquid if it cooks away too quickly.

Dredge the fillets with flour and sauté them in olive oil until nicely browned and just cooked through.

Prepare a curry sauce with 11/2 cups of sauce béchamel flavored to taste with curry powder. Unmold the rice, arrange the sole around it, and cover with the curry sauce.

Thin French-fried onions are excellent with this dish.

SOLE À LA PIEMONTESE

4 cups water

1 cup corn meal

11/2 teaspoons salt

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons grated cheese

2 cups cooked chopped spinach

1 teaspoon tarragon

1 tablespoon lemon juice

6 fillets of sole

Flour

6 tablespoons butter
or
oil

Parsley

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup tomato paste

Prepare a polenta by bringing to a boil 3 cups of water and stir in the corn meal and 1 teaspoon of the salt, which has been mixed with 1 cup of cold water. Stir until thickened, add the butter and cheese and let it cook over hot water for 11/2 hours.

Cook the spinach; chop and season it with tarragon, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the lemon juice.

Flour the fillets and sauté them in butter or oil according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10). Pour the polenta on the bottom of an oval serving dish, top with the spinach, and cover with the fillets. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Make a sauce by adding the wine and tomato paste to the pan juices, blending them well. Pour this over the fish.

FILLETS WITH PILAF, ITALIAN

6 large fillets of sole

Flour

Rice pilaf
or
rice ring

6 tomatoes

6 zucchini
or
summer squash

18 mushroom caps

Butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Tartar sauce (pages 35–36)

Cut the fillets into small julienne strips and roll in flour.

Prepare a rice pilaf or rice ring according to your own recipe. Sauté the vegetables in butter until they are nicely browned and just cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste. Sauté the sole strips very quickly in butter and season to taste.

Set the pilaf or ring in the center of a platter, decorate it with the strips of fish and surround it with the sautéed vegetables. Serve with a tartar sauce.

VARIATION

Mix a great quantity of chopped parsley and tiny cooked peas with the rice.

This is a delightful dish for a buffet supper since the entire meal is right there on the platter. You can vary the vegetables as you wish.

GINGER-FRIED FLOUNDER

Make the following batter:

3 eggs

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon grated ginger (fresh
or
preserved)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons chopped green onion

3 tablespoons sherry

Mix thoroughly. Cut 6 fillets of flounder in strips, dip in the batter, and fry in shallow or deep fat.

FILLETS CASSIS

1 tablespoon finely chopped basil

1 cup thick tomato sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

6 fillets of sole

Flour

2 eggs, beaten

Crumbs

Butter
or
oil

Salt

8 ounces spaghetti

6 tablespoons butter

1 cup grated Cheddar
or
Gruyère cheese

Chopped parsley

Mix the basil and the tomato sauce and add the pepper. Spread each fillet well with this mixture and fold over. Dip the fillets in flour, in beaten egg, and in crumbs, and sauté in butter (or oil) according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10). (Be careful when you turn them not to drip the tomato filling all over the pan.) Salt them to taste. When they are nicely browned and cooked through, serve them on a bed of sphaghetti that has been boiled, drained, and mixed with the butter and grated cheese.

You may serve this with a tomato sauce if you wish, but I think it needs nothing more than a little parsley and some more pepper.

NOTE
: For a change, when you mix your spaghetti and cheese, sauté it in butter until it is lightly browned. Turn it with the aid of spatulas, brown the other side, and turn it out on a serving dish with the brown showing. This is a fine treat.

FILLETS PAYSANNE

1/2 pound mushrooms, coarsely chopped

8 tablespoons butter

8 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup shredded almonds

6 sour
or
dill pickles

1/4 cup capers

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

6 fillets of sole

Paprika

Flour

Chopped parsley

Cook the mushrooms in the 4 tablespoons each of the butter and olive oil. Add the almonds, blanched and cut into small pieces. When slightly browned add the pickles and capers and season to taste.

Sprinkle the fillets with paprika and dredge in flour. Sauté in the remaining butter and oil according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10), and salt and pepper to taste. Arrange the fish on a platter and cover with the mushroom and almond mixture. Combine the juices of the two pans and pour over the fish. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

FILLETS OF SOLE ST. JACQUES

4 fillets of sole

Flour

6 tablespoons butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 pound scallops, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

Chopped parsley

Sauce Béarnaise (page 26)

Cut the fillets into small strips, approximately 3 inches long by 3/4 to 1 inch wide. Roll them in flour and sauté in butter according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10) just long enough to color them. These small pieces are very easy to overcook, so be careful. Salt and pepper to taste.

Roll the scallops in flour and sauté in butter. Add the garlic and parsley and season to taste.

Heap the scallops in the center of a hot platter and arrange the fillets around the edge. Or arrange the fillets in individual shells and use the scallops for topping. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with a sauce Béarnaise.

POACHED SOLE, FILLETS AND WHOLE FISH

Poaching is usually done in one of the court bouillons – preferably those with white wine, for most of the appropriate sauces include white wine broth. Occasionally a recipe calls for a red wine sauce, and some use vermouth. In some cases the fillets are poached in undiluted white wine with the addition of flavoring agents.

Sole — or fish of the flounder family, as the case may be — requires very little poaching to make it palatable and juicy. The delicate flesh is very fragile and should be watched carefully. There is no danger of overcooking if you follow the Canadian cooking theory (page 12).

ESCABECHE OF FLOUNDER

2 pounds fillets
or
steaks

Lemon
or
lime juice for dipping

Flour

Butter

1 clove garlic

3 tablespoons lemon
or
lime juice

1/3 cup orange juice

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup minced green onions

Dash of Tabasco
or
cayenne pepper

Salt to taste

Ripe olives

Quartered limes
or
lemons

Dip the fish in lemon or lime juice, rub with flour, and sauté in butter until golden brown according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 10). Arrange in a dish (about 2 inches deep) in a symmetrical fashion. Remove any skin and bone, if it is steak.

Make a sauce by crushing the garlic and adding the lemon or lime juice, orange juice, olive oil, minced onions, Tabasco or cayenne, and salt to taste. Pour this over the fish, and let it stand in the refrigerator for 24 hours or more. To serve as a first course or one of the dishes at a buffet supper, garnish with ripe olives and quartered limes or lemons.

NOTE
: You may add fresh coriander (sometimes called Chinese parsley) to the sauce. Also try ground cumin seed or toasted coriander seeds.

SOLE WITH SHRIMP SAUCE

2 medium-sized soles
or
flounders

White wine court bouillon (pages 19–20)

2 pounds shrimp, cleaned

2 cups sauce velouté (page 21), prepared with the broth

Grated Parmesan cheese

Poach the soles or flounders in the court bouillon according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 12). Four minutes before the fish is done, add the shrimp. When they are done, place the fish on a hot serving dish or gratin dish.