James Beard's New Fish Cookery - James Beard [91]
These are excellent as part of a “mixed fry” in the Italian style. Use a selection of small bits of fish, all fried and served with a highly seasoned sauce.
FRIED SQUID II
Cut the tentacles into small pieces and dust well with flour. Sauté in plenty of olive oil. It’s wise to cover the pan, for the small pieces of squid may fly out and hit you in the face. Salt and pepper well and serve with puree of spinach lightly flavored with garlic.
BAKED SQUID
Clean the squid and soak it in milk for an hour. Roll it well in buttered bread crumbs and arrange it in an oiled pan or baking dish. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and dot with butter. Bake at 500° for 12 minutes. Serve with a sauce diable (page 29), tartar sauce (pages 35–36), or tomato sauce (page 23).
Striped Bass
Striped bass, known below the Mason-Dixon Line as rockfish, is a great favorite with anglers on both coasts and an important commercial fish on the East Coast.* Though not yet a household food in the same sense as mackerel and cod, its popularity is growing. Occasionally you may see an exceptionally large striped bass in your market, but on the average the fish runs from 15 to 18 inches long. Some is sold filleted, some frozen.
BROILED STRIPED BASS
Either fillets or the whole split fish may be broiled according to the recipes on pages 9–10. Serve with lemon butter (page 31) or Hollandaise sauce (pages 25–26), cucumber sauce with sour cream (page 37), tartar sauce (pages 35–36), oyster sauce (page 21), or lobster sauce (page 21).
VARIATIONS
1. Flambé. Broil a whole striped bass. When it is done, arrange it on a large metal platter on a bed of dried fennel or thyme. Top with a mixture of dried herbs – fennel, thyme, parsley. Add cognac and ignite. Let the herbs burn down so that their flavors permeate the whole fish. You may vary the dried herbs as you wish, but fennel and thyme seem to me to be the perfect combination.
2. Split a whole striped bass and remove the backbone. Oil the broiler pan well and place the fish on it, skin side down. Oil the fish well, and broil it according to the Canadian cooking theory (pages 9–10). Halfway through the cooking time, cover it with paper-thin slices of lemon, salt, and pepper to taste and continue broiling until done. Remove the lemon slices and add herb butter (page 33).
STUFFED STRIPED BASS I
Split a whole striped bass and remove the backbone. Stuff it with thin slices of onion, tomato, green pepper, and plenty of chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to taste; add some fresh or dried tarragon to taste and dot heavily with butter. Sew the fish together or secure with skewers and twine. Flour it lightly, butter it well, and season to taste. Place it in an oiled baking dish and add 1 cup of red wine. Bake at 425° according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 8). Baste with the wine while it is cooking. Serve with a tomato sauce well flavored with the wine and some garlic.
STUFFED STRIPED BASS II
Prepare a stuffing mixture of the following:
1 pound crabmeat
1/4 cup chopped chives or green onion
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons chopped celery
1/2 cup crumbs
1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Stuff the fish and sew it up or fasten it with skewers and twine. Oil and season it and place it on an oiled baking dish or pan. Bake at 425° according to the Canadian cooking theory (page 8). Serve with a sauce rémoulade (page 35) that you have mixed with1/2 cup of crabmeat.
STUFFED STRIPED BASS III
2 slices salt pork, cut in small pieces
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
1/2 cup finely rolled crumbs
1 teaspoon fennel or thyme
1/2 cup toasted chopped almonds
Striped bass
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Bacon strips