Filet de Sole Dugléré
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large shallow pan and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot or onion. Season 6 fillets of sole with salt and arrange them side by side in the pan. Peel, seed and chop coarsely 4 tomatoes and spread them over the fish. Add ½ cup tomato juice, 1 clove of garlic, and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley. Cover the fish with a circle of buttered paper with a tiny hole in the center, bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan. and simmer the fish for 10 to 12 minutes, depending upon the thickness of the fillets. Discard the garlic and transfer the fillets to a heated serving dish. Reduce the sauce rapidly over a hot flame to 2/3 its original volume. Thicken the sauce with beurre manié made by kneading together 2 tablespoons butter with 1 teaspoon flour. Stir until the sauce is well blended) correct the seasoning with salt and pepper, and finish by swirling in 1 tablespoon sweet butter. Pour the sauce over the filers and sprinkle the fish with chopped parsley. Other fillets may also be prepared by this recipe.
Fillet de Sole Portugaise
Follow the recipe for fillet de sole Dugléré, adding ½ pound peeled and sliced mushrooms with the tomatoes, and thicken the sauce with ½ cup cream sauce or béchamel sauce (June, 1955). Other fillets may be cooked in this way.
Filet de Sole Paysanne
Melt ½ tablespoon butter in a shallow pan, add 2 medium carrots and 2 medium onions, both thinly sliced, cover the pan, and cook very slowly until the vegetables are soft, but not at all brown. Add 1 tablespoon butter and arrange the fish fillets on the vegetables. Add ½ teaspoon chopped parsley and 1 cup fish stock, white wine, or water. Cover the fish with a circle of buttered paper with a tiny hole in the center, bring the liquid to a boil, cover the pan and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, depending upon the thickness of the fillets. Remove the fish to a serving dish and cook the liquid until it is reduced to 1/3 its original volume. Thicken with beurre manié made by kneading 1 tablespoon butter with 1 teaspoon flour. Blend well and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce over the fish, vegetables and all. Other fish fillets may be prepared in this way with great success.
SAUTEING
Any fish can be sautéed, small whole fish, fillets, or slices cut from a large fish, but sautéing is the preferred method for the small fish that make up the usual fisherman's catch. These freshly caught fish have such delicate flavor and texture that only the simplest sauce meunière—butter, cooked to a hazelnut brown color, with a little lemon juice and parsley—is needed to accompany them. In sautéing fish, be sure that the pan is large enough so that the fish will not be crowded. Crowding causes the fish to steam, and they will not have the crispy surface that is a distinguishing characteristic of this method of cooking fish. If necessary, use two pans. Sauté the fish in oil. which does nor burn as easily as butler. When the fish is done and has been transferred to the serving dish, pour off the oil and add to the pan the butter which is to be browned for the sauce.
Fish Sauté Meunière
Dip in milk and in flour seasoned with salt small whole fish, fish fillets, or slices of large fish. Heat ¼ inch oil in a large frying pan, and in this brown the fish on both sides. Remove the fish to a serving dish and sprinkle it with pepper, lemon juice and chopped parsley. Garnish each piece of fish with a slice of lemon. Pour off the oil in which the fish was browned and in the same pan melt 1 tablespoon butter for each serving. Cook the butter until it is a rich hazelnut brown and pour it over the fish.
FRYING
Deep-fried fish are popular in restaurants. where the kettle of hot deep fat is always ready on the range, and frying is becoming more convenient for home cooks now that they can buy automatic frying kettles which assure controlled temperature and are easy to use. Fish for deep frying is prepared in one of three ways. It is dipped in milk and in four—the excess Hour should be shaken off. Smelts, whitebait, small whole trout, kingfish and fish fillets are prepared in this way. Or it is clipped in flour and coated with beaten egg and milk and then with bread crumbs, as are fish croquettes, sole Colhert and fish fillets. Or it is coated with fritter batter, as arc shellfish and. of course, fish fillets. In deep frying the temperature of the fat is important, and a thermometer is a desirable did. Tor most fish the temperature of the fat should be about 370° F., the temperature at which a 1-inch cube of bread will brown in 60 seconds. Small fish should be cooked at a slightly higher temperature, and large fish at a slightly lower temperature. The fish rises to the surface when it is done. It should then be drained on paper toweling, which will absorb excess fat.
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