James Beard's New Fish Cookery - James Beard [57]
BAKED SNAPPER FLORIDA
This fine dish calls for a red snapper weighing 5 to 7 pounds. I first tasted it in the South, and the experience was memorable.
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large green pepper, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Bacon fat
2 cups dry bread crumbs
Fresh dill or dill seeds
3 eggs, beaten
Bacon strips (optional)
11/2 cups red wine
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup tomato paste
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped parsley
First clean and split the fish, leaving the head intact. To prepare the stuffing, sauté the onion, pepper, and garlic in the bacon fat. Add the bread crumbs, a touch of fresh dill or a few dill seeds, the eggs, and another tablespoon of bacon fat. Stuff the fish with this mixture and sew or secure it with toothpicks.
Arrange it in an oiled baking pan and brush it with bacon fat or strip it with bacon. Add 1 cup of the red wine to the pan and bake at 425° according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 8). Remove the fish to a hot platter while you prepare the sauce.
Blend the flour with the pan drippings; add the tomato paste and the remaining 1/2 cup of red wine. Stir constantly until the mixture is smooth and thick. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, and parsley, and serve with the fish.
This delicious dish should be accompanied by plain boiled potatoes and a chilled rosé wine.
POACHED RED SNAPPER
For one of the most elegant fish dishes in the country, poach a good-sized red snapper according to the directions for poaching fish (page 12). Use a mild court bouillon (page 18), and serve with a sauce mousseline (page 26) or sauce Béarnaise (page 26).
Cold poached red snapper, jellied or plain, is very delicate. Serve with a good olive oil mayonnaise or rémoulade (pages 34, 35). For a spectacular summer dish, serve a cold poached red snapper on a platter with cold lobster, the whole garnished with cold jumbo shrimp and greens. Sauce verte (page 34) is the ideal accompaniment.
QUENELLES MADE WITH RED SNAPPER
The finest quenelles are made with a combination of red snapper, sea bass, and pickerel. The snapper gives them a body and flavor approximating the qualities of the famous French quenelles.
1/2 pound filleted red snapper
1/4 pound sea bass
1/4 pound pickerel or pike
2 pounds beef kidney fat
11/2 quarts very heavy, rich cream
6 egg yolks
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Nutmeg
8 egg whites
Pound the fish in a mortar or grind it several times until it is pureed. Also grind or pound beef kidney fat until it is creamy. Combine the kidney fat and the fish, then work in 1 quart of the cream to which you have added the egg yolks. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg. Blend with the stiffly beaten egg whites, and then force the mixture through a fine sieve. Put the mixture in a bowl, set the bowl in ice, and work it with a wooden spoon, gradually adding 1 pint of extra-heavy cream. The mixture must be quite stiff so that you can then mold it into egg-shaped pieces.
Poach the quenelles in boiling salted water for a few minutes and let them dry on a paper towel. They may be dropped into sauce at once, or they may be kept in the refrigerator and reheated in sauce later.
Quenelles may be served in a white wine sauce (page 23).
River Herring
There are two species of river herring along our Atlantic Coast, the alewife, or branch herring, found chiefly in the North, and the blueback, whose range extends south to Florida. Like the salmon, river herring come into freshwater streams to spawn. They are small and bony, weighing on the average about 1/2 pound. They are seldom sold fresh, but support a large industry engaged in preserving them in salt, curing them in vinegar, smoking and canning them.
The river herring may be prepared in any of the ways given for sea