Harengs frais, harengs frais!” When that singsong cry broke the quiet of my small town, the housewives clattered hastily out into the street to buy. For in Montserault, as in other small towns in the central part of France, a Salt-water fish like fresh herring was a rare treat. Of course, the wealthier citizens of our town could afford to have salmon, turbot, sole, and lobster sent to them from the coast, packed in ice in barrels that had to be re-iced en route, but the only salt-water fish we ever saw for sale was herring. Not that we lacked for fish. We fared very well indeed on fish from l'eau douce—the sweet waters, as we called them, of our own streams and lakes.
Indeed, it may have been all for the best that we had so few salt-water fish, because lacking them, as well as lobster, shrimp, and other shellfish, we learned to Appreciate the joys of pike. perch, carp, and lake trout, and thought particularly well of brook trout and crayfish, the écrevisses which are so famous in France, but can be found. so far as I know, only in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and near New Orleans in this country.
Fish was as important a part of our cuisine as chickens, eggs, or vegetables, and every farmer built an artificial fishpond in his low-lying field just as he built hen houses, or planted vegetables. The chore of catching fish from the fishpond was reserved for the children; so was the less pleasant chore of helping to drain the pond every so often and to clean it out.
But in spring, when the snow melted high in the hills, and the quiet streams became rushing rivers of cold water splashing over their rocky beds, the trout fishermen were in their glory. Enthusiasts came from all over the countryside to cast their lines in our streams.
We never had enough fish, even when we added to the produce of our own fishponds and the trout streams the fish which commercial fishermen caught in the river Allier, whose broad waters were the center of the fishing industry in our départment. livery household relished fish, and every housewife knew how to cook it. The restaurants of the district made much of their fish specialties. Most of them had little ponds near at hand where they kept the live fish they purchased until the moment they were to go into the pan. Some city restaurants still do this; they keep the live fish in a pond for the customer to choose and have cooked to his order.
Here is a guide to some of the freshwater fish you may buy in your local market, especially inland, or which the sportsmen of your families may bring back from fishing trips.
Pike is an excellent freshwater fish, but it lives off other fish, and is so voracious that we used to call pike “freshwater sharks.” A pike could devour a carp almost its own size. Whenever we restocked our pond, we pur in only enough pike to get rid of the excess small fish. Or we would isolate the pike.
But it is more interesting to talk of eating pike than of what they eat. Their flesh is while and firm, just right for making quenelles and fish mousse, delicacies for which fish flesh of a grayish cast is quite unsuitable. At the Maison Calondre in Moulins, where I Served my apprenticeship, quenelles were a favorite garnish of many of the sauced fish dishes. The fish mousse was a popular entree made from the same fish mixture as the quenelles, but steamed in a mold instead of being poached. I must have pounded thousands of pike filets for these specialties during my few years at Maison Calondre. We chose the large pike for this purpose, because the flesh is dryer, The smaller pike, weighing from three to five pounds, we frequently braised in red or white wine, or steamed and Served with Nantua sauce, a béchamel sauce finished with crayfish butter (see January, 1953). Pike is also delicious for the buffet when served cold and dressed with mayonnaise in the same way a whole salmon is prepared and served. The one defect of pike is its large number of bones.
Carp is another fine fresh-water fish. No wonder the pike likes to eat it! It is truly delicious. For some reason, carp lives to a greater age than any other fresh-water fish. In Paris, people say that some of the carp that decorate the park ponds arc at least fifty years old. They continue to grow larger as they grow older, and their scales, large at any age, become very big indeed. The color of carp changes from light brown or golden to a reddish hue as the age of the fish advances—just as our hair turns gray, I suppose. An uncle of mine used to have charge of a fishpond on an estate belonging to a man about forty years old. Some of the carp in this pond were as old as the owner, and when the pond was emptied and cleaned every few years, the owner always insisted on restoring these dozen or so carp that he remembered from his boyhood. Several of these old fellows weighed as much as fifteen pounds, a far cry from the little poissons d'or that arc usually kept in fishponds as pets.
However much these long-lived carp may be valued for sentimental reasons, the best size for eating is around one and one-half to two pounds. Small carp achieve a beautiful flavor when sautéed in oil and served with browned butter, à la meunière. Larger carp, weighing three pounds or more, are usually braised and often stuffed. Carp roe is also very tasty, either sautéed and served à la meunière or crushed and combined with other ingredients and used to stuff the fish itself. To prepare carp effectively, the trick is to be very thorough in removing the scales, as they are so very large and coarse Then, before the fish is served, the skin must also be removed.
A lovely river fish is perch, fresh tasting and succulent. It possesses all the fine qualities of small fish and of fish which live in running water. When you clean perch, however, you must take care to cut off the sharp fins.
Picketel, which seldom weighs more than one pound, is one of the best of the small fish. It is excellent sautéed or broiled and is almost always included in matelote, a fresh-water fish stew very popular in France.
A larger fish is lake trout, sometimes called salmon trout—truite saumonée— usually prepared by braising or baking, methods suitable for most large fish. It is so much like salmon that all the ways of cooking salmon arc equally good for lake trout. Lake trout may be substituted for salmon on the cold buffet. The truite saumonée from the Loire River is especially famed in France for its delicacy and flavor; do not fail to order this fish at dinner sometime when you are traveling in France.
But the real prizes of fresh-water country, delicacies which cannot be matched anywhere, are brook trout and crayfish. Sports fishermen usually favor trout, probably because it takes such skill to catch them. There are many different varieties of this fish; the kind I remember best from my native countryside was marked with little red spots and had flesh of a pinkish color.
The two most popular ways of cooking brook trout are both simple: The trout can be sautéed and served à la meunière, or cooked in water au bleu. In our Bourbonnais cooking at home, we favored a trout specialty à la crime, which is a little out of the ordinary and exceptionally fine.
Fresh-water crayfish take the place of lobster in sections of France where lobster is not available. Some people consider them better tasting than lobster, sweeter and more succulent. There is quite a variation in size and for each size there is a suitable method of preparation. The small crayfish are best in bisque; the medium size adapt themselves well for use in garnishes; and the large ones generally go into main dishes. In America. we often begin a meal with shrimp cocktail. In France, it is common to start dinner with écrevisses en buisson (literally, crayfish in a bush), whole boiled crayfish supported on a three-tiered serving dish and generously garnished with parsley. I must add that to me the red upright crayfish and the green fluffy parsley do make a bush almost as pretty as any I have seen in gardens.
Crayfish are not widely eaten in America because they arc found in so few places and the season for them extends only from July to October. In France, where they abound, they arc served in the shell unless used for bisque, and only the tail and claw are eaten. To avoid a bitter taste, it is important to take out the end of the intestinal tract under the tail before they arc cooked. To cook them to their best flavor, white wine is almost essential. Lemon juice may be added to the water as a substitute, but the result is not the same. Here are a few recipes for preparing crayfish and the other fish I have been describing.
Calico or Lake Bass au Gratin
Cook 1 teaspoon chopped shallots in 1 teaspoon butter until the shallots are soft but not brown. Remove the stems from 6 large mushrooms and set the caps aside. Chop the stems with 6 or 8 whole mushrooms, add to the shallots, and cook until most of the moisture from the mushrooms is cooked away. Add 1 teaspoon chopped parsley and ½ cup thick brown sauce or tomato sauce (see January, 1953), bring to a boil, and simmer for a few minutes. Spread the bottom of an ovenproof serving dish with some of this sauce.
Season 6 filets of bass with a little salt and pepper and arrange them on the sauce. Cook the reserved mushroom caps in a very little water with a few drops of lemon juice for 5 minutes, drain, and place them on the filets. Cover the mushrooms with the remaining sauce. Add 2/3 cup white wine, sprinkle with 2 to 3 tablespoons fine bread crumbs and a little melted butter, and bake in a hot oven (425° F.) for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the fish is cooked and the crumbs on top are golden. Sprinkle the fish with chopped parsley and a little lemon juice and serve from the baking dish.
Stuffed Carp Charolaise
Scale and clean 2 carp, each weighing from 2 to 2 ¼ pounds, reserving the roe. Prepare a stuffing as follows: Soak 2 cups fresh bread crumbs in a little milk, then press out most of the liquid. Sauté 1 teaspoon finely chopped shallots in 1 tablespoon butter until the shallots are soft but not brown. Press the roe through a fine sieve. Combine the bread Crumbs, the shallots and the butler in which they were cooked, and the roe. Add 1 teaspoon each of chopped chives and paisley. Mix thoroughly and stir in 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, beaten with ½ teaspoon salt, a little pepper, and a dash of freshly grated nutmeg. Stuff the fish and fasten the openings with string.
In the bottom of a deep oval fish pan, place 1 onion and 1 carrot, both sliced, 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 small bay leaf, a little thyme, and 1 clove of garlic. Season the fish with salt and pepper, put them in the pan, and pour over them 2 tups red wine. Bring the wine to a boil, cover the fish with a piece of buttered wax paper, and cover the pan. Cook the fish over a very low heat or in a hot oven (425° F.) for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the fish are done. Place the fish on a warm serving platter and remove the skin, Garnish the platter with sautéed mushrooms, crisp bacon, and small glazed onions. Strain the liquid from the fish pan into a saucepan, bring it to a boil, and stir in manié butter, made by creaming together 2 tablespoons butter with 1 tablespoon flour. Correct the seasoning with salt and pour the sauce over the fish and garnishing.
Baked Whitefish à la Creole
Scale and clean a whitefish weighing May 1953 about 3 pounds. The fish may be left whole or it may be split and the bones in the center removed. Dip the fish in milk and then in Hour. Shake off the surplus Hour and season the fish with salt and pepper. Pot enough salad oil in a heatproof earthenware or glass baking dish to cover the bottom well, and heat the oil in a hot oven (425° F.). Put the fish in the baking dish and bake it in the oven for 20 to 25 minifies if the fish is split, and 10 minutes longer if the fish is whole, basting frequently with the oil. Drain the oil from the dish and mask the fish with Creole sauce (see “The Last Touch”).
Perch Chez Soi
Scale and clean 6 perch, each weighing about ½ pound, and cut off the sharp fins. In a saucepan melt 2 tablespoons butter, add 1 cup each of chopped carrots and celery. 2 tablespoons chopped onion, and 6 or 8 sprigs of parsley, and cook gently for about 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Add 1 ½ cups each of white wine and water and ½ teaspoon salt. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Arrange the perch in a buttered pan and strain half the liquid over them. Bring again to a boil and poach the fish for 12 to 15 minutes. Continue to simmer the vegetables in the remaining liquid.
Place the fish on a serving planer and remove the skins. Strain out the vegetables and spread them over the fish. Combine the vegetable liquid with the liquid in which the fish was cooked, and boil until it is reduced to 1 ½ cups. Stir in manié butter, made by creaming together 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon flour, and continue to stir until the sauce is smooth and thickened. Correct the seasoning and add 2 tablespoons butter. Swirl the pan until (he butter is melted, pour the sauce over the fish, and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Fish Mousse
Pound 1 pound of fresh pike, cod, sea bass, or sole, free of skin and bones, on a board. using the dull edge of a large knife or a wooden potato masher or run it through a food grinder using the finest blade. Season the fish with ½ teaspoon salt and a little pepper and add very gradually 2 egg whites, pounding constantly until the mixture is very smooth. Force the mixture through a line sieve and put it in a saucepan set in a basin of cracked ice. Work the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon, adding very gradually 2 to 2 ½ cups heavy cream, and then make the quenelles.
Quenelles
Shape the fish mousse with either a teaspoon or a tablespoon. Heap the spoon with the mixture, and then with another spoon the same size round oft the top to make an egg-shaped quenelle. Slip the quenelle onto a well-buttered pan by dipping the second spoon in warm water and gently sliding the mousse off the first spoon. After they are all formed, pour enough salted water in the pan barely to cover, bring the water gently to the boiling point, and poach over very low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the quenelles are firm. Remove the quenelles from the pan to drain on a towel. Arrange them on a serving plate and serve with sauce américaine (see March, 1953) or other fish sauce (see “The Last Touch”) and garnish, if desired, with cooked shellfish.
Molded Fish Mousse
Prepare fish mousse, but instead of shaping it into quenelles, turn it into a well-buttered charlotte or ring mold and cover the mold with buttered wax paper. Set the mold in a pan of hot water and cook the mousse in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the mousse comes out clean. Unmold and serve with Newberg or other fish sauce (see “The Last Touch”).
Mold of Pike à la Normande
Pound 1 pound of fresh pike, cod, sea bass, or sole, free of skin and bones, on a board, using the dull edge of a large knife or a wooden potato masher or run it through the food grinder, using the finest blade. Continue to pound until the flesh is smooth enough to pass through a fine sieve. Combine the sieved flesh with ¾ pound of panade and pound and mix together thoroughly. Add ½ cup melted butter, ½ cup thick béchamel sauce (see January, 1953), ½ teaspoon salt, a little pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. Put the mixture in a bowl set in a basin of cracked ice and work vigorously with a wooden spoon, adding gradually 3 egg yolks beaten with 1 egg. When the mixture is thoroughly combined, work in ½ cup heavy cream and correct the seasoning with salt.
Turn the mixture into a well-buttered charlotte or ring mold and cover the mold with buttered wax paper. Set the mold in a pan of hot water and cook in a moderate oven (375° F.) or over very low heat on top of the stove for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a large kitchen needle inserted in it comes out clean. Unmold the fish on a warm serving dish, garnish it with small cooked crayfish tails or other shellfish and small cooked mushrooms and pour over it a rich cream sauce (see January, 1953), carefully thickened with 2 beaten egg yolks.
Panade for Fish Quenelles or Molds
To make 1 pound of panade: Put in a saucepan 1 cup water, 4 tablespoons butter, and ½ teaspoon salt, and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add 1 cup flour. Mix well, return to the hear, and cook, stirring briskly, until the mixture rolls away from the sides of the pan without sticking. Remove from the heat and add 4 eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Spread the paste on a buttered pan and cool before using. To make ¾ pound of panade, use ¾ cup water, 3 tablespoons butter, ¾ cup flour, and 3 eggs.
Truite Saumonée Braisée au Vin Rouge
Clean a 3-pound salmon trout and season it with salt and pepper. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a pan long enough to hold the fish and in it sauté 1 carrot and 1 onion, both finely chopped, until the vegetables begin to turn golden. Place the fish on the vegetables, add a little thyme, 1 small bay leaf, 4 or 5 sprigs of parsley, 1 stalk of celery, and 2 cups red wine. Cover the fish with a piece of buttered wax paper and bring the wine to a boil. Cover the pan and cook the fish in a hot oven (425° F.) for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the fish is done, basting from time to time.
Place the trout on a warm serving dish and remove the skin. Strain the pan liquid into a saucepan and cook it briskly until it is reduced to half. Stir in manié butter, made by creaming 2 tablespoons butter with 1 teaspoon flour, cook, stirring, until the sauce is thickened, and correct the seasoning with salt and a little freshly ground pepper. Garnish the fish with small cooked mushrooms. Pour the sauce over the fish or serve it separately.
Brook Trout à la Bourbonnaise
Clean 6 brook trout, each weighing about ½ pound. Cut off the fins, split the fish and remove backbones. Prepare 1 ½ cups mousse of pike (see page 27) with ½ pound of fish, 1 egg white, and 1 cup cream. Also prepare duxelles of mushrooms as follows: In a saucepan put 1 cup finely chopped mushrooms, 1 tablespoon butter, and 1 teaspoon chopped shallots or onion, and cook very slowly, stirring frequently, until most of the moisture is cooked away and the mixture is like a heavy paste. Add 2 tablespoons tomato or brown sauce (see January, 1953) and 1 teaspoon chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper. Cool.
Combine the mushroom duxelles and the mousse of pike. Divide this stuffing into six pans and stuff the trout. Season the fish with salt and pepper, roll each one in well-buttered paper. and tie with string. Arrange the fish in a deep saucepan side by side and add enough red wine barely to cover. Cover the pan, bring the wine to a boil, and poach the fish on top of the stove or in a hot oven (400° F.) for about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the trout to a warm serving dish and continue to cook the liquid in the pan until it is reduced to two-thirds. Add 1 ½ cups heavy cream and continue to cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in 3 egg yolks, beaten with a little of the hot sauce, and 3 tablespoons butter. Discard the strings and paper from the trout and remove the skins. Put a few small cooked mushrooms on the fish, correct the seasoning of the sauce with salt, and pour it over the fish.
Ecrevisses à la Bordelaise
Wash 4 dozen crayfish well and remove the end of the intestinal tracts under the tails. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a saucepan and add 1 carrot and 1 onion, both finely diced, 1 tablespoon chopped shallots or onion, 2 sprigs of parsley, 1 clove of garlic, crushed, a little thyme, and 1 small bay leaf. crumbled. Cook very slowly for about 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Add 4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped, ½ teaspoon salt, and the crayfish, and cook over a hot fire, shaking the pan constantly, until the crayfish turn red. Add 4 tablespoons warm cognac and ignite. Add 2 cups white wine and continue to cook over a hot fire for 12 minutes longer. Remove the crayfish to a deep serving dish. Cook the liquid until it is reduced to half and thicken it by swirling in manié butter, made by creaming 3 tablespoons butter with 1 teaspoon flour. Correct the seasoning with salt and add a little freshly ground pepper. Pour the sauce over the crayfish and sprinkle with parsley