An old French Proverb has it: “C'est la Sauce qui fait le poisson,” testifying to the importance of the sauce where fish is concerned. I think all gourmets will agree with this and will be considering it not only during these days of Lenten meals but also when looking ahead to those gifts of the sea which are at their best in spring and summer.
Unfortunately, some people believe that a fish sauce must necessarily be elaborate—like sauce normande, which is flavored with fish and shellfish essences and mushroom liquor and is rich with cream and egg yolks, or the carefully blended lobster-tomato-cognac-white-wine combination of sauce américaine. Well, elegant sauces do have a place, and a very important one, in fish cookery, but there are just as many instances where a beurre meunière, the simple brown butter sauce named by Napoleon I, is a better choice. It is, for example, with the freshly caught trout that anglers are enticing out of inland streams right now when they are swollen to overflowing turbulence with spring's melting snows. Or with the fragile, delicate shad that we await so patiently when the nets in our Eastern rivers pop into view. Both these species of fish are so fine and sweet, so utterly delightful in flavor and texture, that many devotees consider it almost a sacrilege to serve anything but a very simple sauce with them, little more than the extra fat and acid that most fish require. Thus, butter cooked to hazelnut-brown and finished with the merest trace of lemon juice and a soupçon of parsley is perfect. So Napoleon, a great gourmet as well as a great soldier, found out when he was served freshly caught trout many years ago at La Belle Meunière Inn at Royat.
If you want to sauté these fish, or in fact any fish, keep these tricks in mind: Use a pan large enough so that the fish won't be crowded, otherwise they will steam and not acquire a tempting golden-brown. And use salad oil in the pan. Oil can stand the high heat better than butter, which is apt to burn, and the butter sauce which is finished in the pan will have a fresher, more delicate flavor than when the fish is cooked in the butter that also sauces it.
Truite Sautée Belle Meunière (Santéed Trout Meunière)
Clean 6 brook trout and dip them in milk and then in flour seasoned with salt. Cover the bottom of a frying pan generously with salad oil and heat until very hot. Add the fish and sauté it until golden-brown on the underside. Turn and continue cooking until brown on the other side. When well browned this way, the fish should be cooked through.
Remove it and pour off all the oil but do not wash the pan, In it cook 6 tablespoons butter slowly until it takes on a good hazelnut-brown color. Pour it over the fish and sprinkle with a little lemon juice, chopped parsley, and freshly ground pepper.
A delicate fish like shad, particularly if it has been boned, is usually difficult to turn while cooking. But both sides can acquire a golden-brown if the top of the fish is browned under a broiler or in a hot oven after the underside is browned in the fat in the pan.
Although fish filets, so popular because there are no bones to struggle with, can be sautéed or broiled, I think they lend themselves admirably to white wine and other sauces. But in la haute cuisine the bones are always cooked with the fish in order to add flavor to the sauce; some chefs believe that enough substance is extracted from the bones to give the sauce a belter texture, too. Of course, fish can be cooked whole in the liquid and seasonings which form the basis of the sauce and then carefully fileted after cooking. But it is usually more convenient to have the fileting done beforehand. In fact, it is essential when a large quantity is to be cooked because there isn't lime to remove all the bones in the interval between cooking and serving. The trick often resorted to is to lay the bones that have been removed in fileting on top of the fish while it is cooking and to lift them off before making the sauce. And this is a good idea for a recipe that requires fish stock because these bones produce stock while they cook with the liquid in the pan.
Another trick in making sauces for fish filets is to have as many of the ingredients as practical in the pan while the fish cooks—for example, mushrooms, tomatoes, shallots, onions, carrots, and so on—along with the butter and wine. This gives a savory blending of flavors produced in no other way. And, finally, to insure that these flavors penetrate the fish and also to have the top of the fish cook without being submerged in too much liquid, the simple trick is to place a circle of paper on it before covering the pan.
Coming down to specifics, in making most sauces for fish filets, the same general procedure can be followed with any one of a number of sauces, such as white wine, bonne femme, Véronique, paysanne, or tomato. First the butter is spread in a large, shallow pan like a frying pan and the chopped shallots or onion are strewn over the butter. Then any special ingredients typical of the dish, such as mushrooms for bonne femme, carrots and onions for paysanne, or tomatoes or other ingredients that require some cooking, are put in the pan. The fish filets, seasoned with salt and a little pepper, are laid in, with any bones that are available on top of the fish. Wine, water, fish stock, or tomato juice are the usual liquids, sometimes combinations of them. The liquid is sprinkled over all, then a cover of paper is put on, and the pan is covered to hold the steam and flavor while the fish cooks. When it is done, the paper and bones are discarded and the fish is lifted to the serving dish with a broad, flexible spatula.
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.
Filet de Sole Véronique
Put 1 tablespoon butter in a shallow pan and add 2 shallots, finely chopped, or 1/2 small onion, finely chopped. Season 6 fish filets with salt and a little pepper and arrange them on the shallots and butter.Sprinkle them with 1/2 cup white wine. Cut a circle of paper the size of the pan, make a small hole in the center, butter it, and place it, buttered side down, on top of the fish. Cover the pan. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the fish to a heatproof serving dish. Cook the liquid in the pan until it is reduced to about 1/2 cup and add 1/2 cup cream sauce mixed with 1 egg yolk and 2 tablespoons butter. Cook just until the butter is melted. Use drained canned grapes or simmer 1 cup small seedless white grapes in a little water for a few minutes, drain, and place them around the fish. Fold 2 tablespoons whipped cream into the sauce and pour it over the fish. Brown under a hot broiler flame.
Grapes, however, are not the only fruit that can be used successfully in fish dishes. Oranges make a nice variation. I started using them during prohibition when wine that was sold for cooking was loaded with salt to keep people from drinking it. As this also spoiled it for most cooking, I looked for other ways to fill the lack. Orange juice worked out very well in some dishes. I used a Florida fish, pompano, as well as the Florida fruit and called the dish pompano Florida. But I must confess that as soon as we were rid of prohibition, I turned a good recipe into a much better one by adding some wine to it. The recipe uses the peel of the orange in somewhat the same way that it is used in duck à l'orange. The trick in preparing the fine julienne of orange peel is to use a very sharp knife to slice off a layer of rind so thin that none of the white part is included and then to make sure that the flavor of the rind, or zest, will not be overpowering by parboiling the julienne in water for a few minutes.
Filet of Pompano Florida
Remove the peel from 2 oranges, cutting off only the thin orange part, and cut into fine julienne. Cover with water, parboil for a few minutes, and drain. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a shallow pan and add 1 teaspoon finely chopped shallots or onion. Season 6 filets of pompano or other firm-fleshed fish lightly with salt and arrange them in the pan. Add 1/2 cup fish stock or water and the juice of 1/2 lemon and 2 oranges. Spread the drained julienne of orange peel on top of the fish.
Cut a circle of paper the size of the pan, make a small hole in the center, butter it, and place it, butter side down, on the fish. Cover the pan. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the fish to a heated serving dish. Cook the liquid in the pan until it is reduced to 1/2 the original quantity and add 1 cup Newberg sauce (see below). Bring back to the boil and add, if desired, 1/2 cup sherry or Madeira. Strain the sauce over the fish, replacing the orange peel that falls off.
Newberg Sauce
Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, blend with 1 tablespoon flour, and gradually add 1 cup cream, stirring constantly until it is thick and smooth. Do not boil. Add salt and cayenne to taste and pour slowly over 2 well-beaten egg yolks, stirring constantly. Place over boiling water and cook, stirring well, for 3 minutes. Flavor with 2 tablespoons dry sherry.
This fish recipe brings to my mind a few other tricks with oranges that may interest you. First come salads made with oranges. In France, a salade d'orange consists only of slices of orange. But the trick of the French which gives their own, and always slightly different, touch is to let some of the peel marinate with the slices and the juice for a few hours to add its flavor—discarding it before serving, of course—and then, at the last minute, to sprinkle a little curaçao over the fruit. This changes an ordinary sliced orange into a very pleasing dessert.
Another thrifty French trick is to serve fruit salad mixtures in the orange shells instead of throwing them away. First, of course, you must prepare the shells. Select a large, brightly colored orange with a thick skin and trim the bottom a bit if it doesn't stand steady. Cut a slice off the top with a sharp knife, preferably one that is curved like a grapefruit knife, cut all around the inside to separate the fruit from the skin. Then cut down through the center of the fruit to make four quarters and lift them out. This way you can use the fruit in a salad mixture. If the salad is to be served with mayonnaise, use a little orange juice in making the dressing.
And I suppose I wouldn't be true to my heritage if I hadn't tried to use orange shells in some other way. I developed a dessert I called soufflé Infante, which is a modification of a baked Alaska that became very popular.
Soufflé Infante
Prepare orange shells as described above. Chill them thoroughly, fill with orange sherbet (see November, 1950), and store in the freezing unit of the refrigerator until ready to use.
To make the soufflé, whip 3 egg whites until stiff, gradually adding 1/2 cup sugar. Beat the 3 yolks until light and fold them and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla into the whiles. Put this on top of the sherbet, piling it about 1 1/2 inches over the lop and completely sealing in the sherbet. Put in a very hot oven for a few minutes to brown the souffle and serve immediately. The orange skin and the soufflé insulate the sherbet.
Another food that is more versatile than we often realize is celery. It is so good eaten raw, so easy to chop and mix with other salad ingredients, that we are apt to overlook other ways of serving it. But I find a great many guests are as fond as I am of braised celery and creamed celery, two dishes that are always enjoyed by those who are familiar with French cooking. Another way of serving celery and one much liked by Americans is stuffed for an hors-d'oeuvre. But before doing anything at all with celery, it must be carefully cleaned. And in my travels here, there, and everywhere, how much celery have I seen that hasn't been well cleaned! It's well to remember that the whiter the stalk, the more attention it must be given, because vegetables like celery are blanched by piling the earth high around them. Then the wind and rains drive the soil into every crevice. And what is worse than biting into a piece of celery and finding it gritty?
When serving celery raw, some of the outside stalks are removed but those that are left around the heart should be scraped with a knife to remove the stringy fibers. Split the head lengthwise into halves or quarters—depending on its size—and let running water from the faucet flush through until every possible bit of sand is removed.
In preparing braised celery, the head is cooked whole, so the celery must be cleaned without breaking it apart. Remove the top leaves and two or three of the coarsest outside stalks. Parboil the heads for five minutes in water and plunge them into cold water. Now, holding each head under the running water, carefully spread apart the stalks without breaking them from the base, until all the soil is flushed out. Because they are soft from parboiling, they won't break—a convenient trick to know.
Braised Celery
Clean 6 heads of celery thoroughly, parboil them for 5 minutes, and plunge them into cold water. Drain. Hold the celery under running water, spreading the stalks to flush out all the soil without breaking the heads. Slice 1 small carrot and small onion and spread in a casserole, laying the pieces of celery on lop. Add enough boiling while slock or water barely to cover the celery. Cover with a few thin slices of fresh pork fat or fresh beef suet and sprinkle with a little salt. Cut a piece of paper the shape of the casserole, make a small hole in the center, and place this on top. Cover the casserole. Cook in a moderately hot oven (375° to 400° F.) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the celery is done. Remove the celery to a heated serving dish.
Remove the fat from the cooking liquid, strain, and cook until it is reduced to about 3/4 cup. Correct the seasoning and thicken with manié butter made by creaming together 1 tablespoon butter with 1 teaspoon flour. Pour this over the celery or serve with good beef or veal gravy.
Creamed Celery
Follow the recipe for braised celery, using about 1 quart of the outside stalks, cleaned and scraped to remove the stringy fibers and cut in 2-inch lengths. While the celery is baking, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan, add 1 tablespoon flour, and l cook until it just starts to turn golden. When the celery is cooked, drain it well, reserving the liquid, into a serving dish. Remove the fat from the cooking liquid, strain it onto the butter and flour, and cook, stirring, until it is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Add 1/4 cup cream, bring to the boil, and pour the sauce over the celery.
In preparing stuffed celery for hors-d'oeuvre, choose rather simple mixtures and piquant flavors that do not overwhelm the pleasant flavor of the celery itself, such as cream cheese mixed with chopped chives and Roquefort cheese creamed with butter or cream.
Celery is also one of the important flavorings for many soups, slews, and sauces. The coarser outside stalks and the leaves can be used. In French cooking, a fagot or, as some call it, a bouquet garni, which combines several flavors to give a subtle blending of them, is put in almost all types of stews and in many sauces. Make a faggot as follows: Tuck a few sprigs of parsley in the concave side of a piece of celery stalk, sprinkle in a very little thyme, and add a piece of bay leaf. Lay another piece of celery stalk snugly against this and tie all together by winding a piece of siring securely around it. If the dish in which it is cooked contains no carrots, add a piece of carrot to the faggot. And if fresh thyme is available, substitute a sprig of it for the dry thyme.
I can hardly say, though, that the use of the faggot is a trick because it is actually a fundamental way of seasoning that is employed in all good French cooking. One of the advantages of using a faggot instead of dropping the separate seasonings in a sauce or stew is that if the flavor appears to be sufficiently strong when you taste the dish, the faggot can be easily removed; and also when a sauce, like tomato sauce, is nibbed through a sieve, the faggot can be removed and there will be no soft, dark little spots of parsley rubbed through to spoil the appearance of the finished sauce.