French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [165]
Sauce à la moutarde
Put 2 teaspoons of yellow Dijon mustard into a sauce-boat or bowl. Stir in a tablespoon of chopped parsley, then 3 oz. of just barely melted butter. Stir gently until it is smooth and add a good squeeze of lemon juice. This makes enough sauce for four people.
LAITANCES EN SABOTS
SOFT ROES IN BAKED POTATOES
Bake some very large potatoes in their jackets. Cut them in half lengthways, scoop out the centres, replace each with 2 soft herring roes previously cooked minute in butter; add seasoning, melted butter, and breadcrumbs, and return to the hot oven for 2 or 3 minutes until browned. Serve with more melted butter. A quarter-pound of roes will be sufficient for 2 large potatoes.
MAQUEREAUX À LA FAÇON DE QUIMPER
MACKEREL WITH EGG, BUTTER AND HERB SAUCE
The fish dishes of the Breton coast have the charm of very good quality ingredients very simply cooked. Maquereaux à la façon de Quimper are notable for the excellence of the sauce, which is so easy and quick to make that it is a most useful one to know, for it can be used for many other fish, for hard-boiled eggs, even for steak instead of béarnaise when one happens to be in a hurry.
Break the yolks of 2 eggs into a bowl, stir in a large teaspoon of yellow Dijon mustard, salt, freshly-ground pepper, a few drops of vinegar. Add a good tablespoon of chopped parsley and any other herbs which may be available, such as chervil, chives, tarragon or fennel. Now pour in slowly 2 oz. of just barely melted butter, stirring all the time. The sauce is ready and should be of the consistency of a thin mayonnaise. As it is not a very solid sauce and is inclined to sink into the fish or whatever it is poured over, it is best either to add it at the last minute or serve it separately in a bowl.
Mackerel in the Quimper way are poached in a highly seasoned court-bouillon, skinned and filleted when cool, arranged in a circle in a flat dish, garnished with a sprinkling of parsley and slices of lemon, with the sauce in the centre of the dish.
FILETS DE MAQUEREAUX À LA TOMATE
FILLETS OF MACKEREL WITH POTATOES AND FRESH TOMATO SAUCE
Coat the fillets of mackerel lightly with flour. Fry them in olive oil or in clarified butter. On the serving dish arrange a circle of hot sliced potatoes, seasoned with olive oil, pepper, salt and a little vinegar. In the centre put the fried mackerel fillets. Serve separately a freshly made coulis of tomatoes as described on pages 126 and 242.
MAYONNAISE DE POISSON
FISH MAYONNAISE
When a respectable quantity of a baked or poached fish is left from one meal, about the two best ways to use it up are either cold with a mayonnaise or hot with a creamy cheese sauce, as described for rate gratinée au fromage. To make a fish mayonnaise with, say, a large breakfast cup of cold salmon, turbot, bass or other white fish meticulously freed of skin, and flaked, make a mayonnaise with one or two egg yolks and about pint of olive oil. Season it with lemon juice rather than vinegar. Separate it into two equal parts. Into one mix the flaked fish. Arrange this in a mound on an oval or round dish, leaving a space all round to put some diced fresh or pickled cucumber, stoned green olives, a few slices of hard-boiled egg, strips of sweet pepper, a few capers, some peeled prawns—not all these things, of course: just two or three, enough to make a fresh and interesting looking dish. Cover the fish only with the reserved half of the mayonnaise and sprinkle chopped parsley or other fresh herbs lightly over the whole dish.
MERLAN EN RAYTE
WHITING WITH RED WINE SAUCE
‘Cut a large whiting into good slices 2 centimetres thick. Roll them in flour, put them into a frying-pan in which you have heated a few tablespoons of olive oil. Cook them briskly, and when they are golden on one side, turn them and fry the other side. Drain them, and then let them simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes in