The sauce is finished by first reducing it, if there is too much liquid for the number of servings, and by thickening it with cream and egg yolks or with manié butter, made by creaming together butter and flour, or with cream sauce. Some ingredients, however, are added just before or just after the fish is removed from the pan. They are the ones that don't take too kindly to much cooking, such as oysters, mussels, or grapes.
In making the following dishes it is easier, too, to handle the cooked fish without breaking it if firm fish like sea bass, pompano, red snapper, Spanish mackerel, or striped bass are selected.
Filets de Poisson au Vin Blanc (Fish Filets in White Wine Sauce)
Put 1 tablespoon butter in a large, shallow pan and add 2 shallots, finely chopped, or 1/2 onion, finely chopped. Season 6 fish filets with salt and pepper and lay them on top of the butter and shallots. If the bones of the fish are on hand, lay them on top of the fish and sprinkle over all 1/2 cup each white wine and fish stock or water. Cut a circle of paper the same size as the pan, make a small hole in the center, butter the paper, and place it, buttered side down, over the fish. Cover the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil and cook for 10 to 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, cream together 2 tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon flour. When the fish is done, remove it to a heated serving dish and add the manié butter to the liquid in the pan. Bring to a boil, rolling the pan to mix it in, but do not boil. Add a little salt and a few drops of lemon juice and pour the mushrooms over the fish. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Filet de Sole Normande
Prepare the garnish first as follows: Scrub 1 pint of mussels until well cleaned and steam them in 1/2 cup water containing a little lemon juice until the shells open. Drain and save the liquor. Poach 12 oysters in their own juice for 2 or 3 minutes and drain them, reserving the liquor. Clean 12 mushrooms and cook them in 1/4 cup of water for a few minutes. Drain them and save the liquor.
Fry 6 slices of French bread in butter until brown on both sides. Butter a large, shallow pan lightly, arrange 6 filets of fish in it, and pour over them the mixed liquors from the mussels, oysters, and mushrooms. There should be about 1 1/2 cups. Bring to a boil, cover the pan, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, make a roux by melting 2 tablespoons butter, adding 1 tablespoon flour, and cooking until it just turns golden. When the fish is done, remove it to a heated serving dish. Add the cooking liquid from the pan to the roux and boil for a few minutes, stirring with a whip to keep it smooth. Mix 2 egg yolks with 1/2 cup cream and combine with the sauce. Bring to the boiling point, stirring all the time, but do not boil. Arrange the mussels, oysters, and mushrooms over the fish on the serving platter, Add 2 tablespoons butter to the sauce, swirling it in and removing the pan from the heat just before the butter is completely melted. Strain it through a fine sieve over the fish and garnish the dish with fried bread triangles. If desired, garnish also with 1/2 cup cooked shrimp, a few cooked crayfish, and a few tiny fried fish.
One of our most popular fish dishes has been filet de sole Véronique, whose sauce is made with small white grapes. This dish is actually not so old or traditional as some of the others. In fact, I knew the man responsible for its name. These tiny white grapes were not ordinarily put in fish dishes, although they had been used in cooking for a long time. They were a traditional garnish for feathered game and poultry, such as breast of chicken, pheasant, and guinea hen. When I was in London forty odd years ago, I remember the grapes came to us from Spain and were called muscats. There was a very popular dish called caille dodue au muscat or caille dodue d'Egypte—caille dodue meaning plump quail. Au muscat referred to the grapes and d'Egypte to the place the quail came from. Later on, the grapes came in tins, which was a great convenience because we could have them all year and also because they were partially cooked—raw white grapes have to be simmered in water for a few minutes before they are added to a sauce.
Well, almost fifty years ago, the poissonnier, or fish chef, in one of London's largest hotels was late coming back to work in the afternoon. So all the chefs had to take over and make sure everything was ready for the evening meal, including the sauces for the mise en place, that row of sauces in the bain-marie that has a prominent position wherever French cooking is practiced in hotels. All the while they were afraid he had perhaps been in an accident because he had never been late before. Finally he arrived, smiling from one end of his face to the other. And at the very same time, an order came down to the kitchen for four filets of sole with muscat grapes in a white wine sauce. He whipped into action, prepared a beautiful dish, and sent it on its way to the dining room. Then his fellow chefs gathered around to find out why he was late, and he told them it was because his wife had just presented him with a baby girl. “What's her name?” they asked, and he said, “Véronique.” “Then we will call the fish and white grape dish Véronique,” the head chef said. And so it has been Véronique ever since on menus.
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