Before presenting the fish recipe, I think it will be helpful to give a trick for cooking the topside of a fish when there is not enough liquid in the pan to cover it. Trim a piece of paper in a Circle about the size of the pan and cut a ½-inch hole in the center. Butter one side of this paper and place it, butterside down, on top of the fish. Cover the pan and cook the fish according to directions. The paper holds in the steam, the little hole in the center releases enough steam to prevent the paper from rising out of place, and the topside of the fish will be cooked as well as the underside.
Filet of Sole Bonne Femme
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a shallow pan. Over it spread 2 shallots, finely chopped, and 6 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced. Season 6 fish filets with salt and pepper and place them on top. Spread 6 more mushrooms, sliced, over the fish and sprinkle with a little chopped parsley. Add ¾ cup dry white wine. Cover with a piece of buttered paper cut the size of the pan and with a small hole in the center. Cook over a fairly quick fire for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the fish to a serving platter and keep hot.
The sauce may be finished in either of two ways. The simpler is to make a manié butter by creaming together 1 tablespoon butter with 1 teaspoon flour. First reduce the liquid in the pan, if there is more than 1 cup. and then thicken it with the manié butter, swirling it into the sauce and removing the pan from the fire as soon as the butter is melted. Pour this over the fish and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. The second way makes a richer sauce and a more elegant dish. Reduce the liquid in the pan to about ½ cup and add ½ cup cream sauce. Mix 1 egg yolk with ¼ cup cream and combine with the sauce. Heat this but do not allow it to boil. Fold in 2 tablespoons whipped cream, pour the sauce over the fish, and glaze under the broiler.
At this season of the year, all of us are thinking about salads and about using the fruits in season. Spring and summer bring to me a flood of boyhood memories of the verdant French country-side where those bonnes ménagères françaises like my mother had so many ways of getting the mast out of the season's bounty. Their tricks were often economy-minded, and I'm not the only chef who has put them to good use. There's one. for example, of using the green outer leaves of lettuce that are too often discarded. After these leaves have been cleaned, well drained, and crisped, they may be cur into julienne and combined with chicken or fish salad mixtures. And still another trick is to cut out carefully the heart of the lettuce so that a base and shell which can be stuffed are left intact. This is an excellent and novel way to serve leftover meat and to use up surplus lettuce. Here's the recipe.
Laitue Farcie (Stuffed Lettuce)
Remove the center part of a head of lettuce very carefully in order to have a shell of outside leaves about 1 inch thick and the base intact to hold a filling. Wash well under running water and parboil for 2 to 3 minutes in boiling salted water. Invert in a colander and when thoroughly drained, place the lettuce, base down, in a bowl to hold it in shape while stuffing it.
For 2 medium-sized heads of lettuce, prepare the following stuffing: Mix together ¼ pound each pork sausage and leftover ground cooked meat, 2 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs, 1 cup cooked rice, 1 clove garlic, crushed, 1 onion, finely chopped and cooked until soft in a little butter. ½ teaspoon salt, and a little pepper. Add 1 beaten egg. Stuff the heads lightly and tie them with a soft string. Put 1 carrot and 1 onion, both sliced, in the bottom of a casserole, place the heads of lettuce on top. and add stock or canned tomatoes to a depth of about 2 inches around the lettuce. Put a strip of bacon or fat salt pork over each head. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Since this is its most popular season. a few words about potato salad and three tricks with it. One is to mix the dressing with the potatoes while they are still warm because they absorb more of the flavor and make a tastier salad. The second is to add 2 or 3 tablespoons of hot water after the potatoes and dressing are combined to make the mixture more succulent. And finally, chill potato salad for only about an hour or two. Never prepare it so far ahead that it must be kept overnight in a refrigerator. This practice will invariably give the mixture an undesirable clammy coldness.
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