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new potatoes

beurre blanc*

COURT BOUILLON*

½ bottle white wine, Coteaux du Loir or other dry white wine

equal quantity of water

1 carrot, sliced

1 onion, sliced

bouquet garni

5-cm (2-inch) piece of celery

salt, 8 peppercorns

Put the bouillon ingredients into a pan, and simmer them for half an hour. Wine from the coteaux du Loir is not easy to come by. I’m lucky enough to live near Jasnières, by La Chartre-sur-Loir, but if I can’t get hold of a bottle (or can’t afford it) I use an ordinary dry white wine.

If the pike is alive, stun and clean it without washing or scaling it (the treatment is similar to that of Trout au bleu, p. 420). If the pike is dead, it can be cleaned and scaled with the aid of boiling water – but as little as possible.

Put the fish on to the strainer of a fish kettle. Pour the tepid bouillon slowly round it, through a sieve. Bring to the boil and simmer until the pike is cooked.

Prepare the sorrel and potatoes while the court bouillon is simmering on its own. It won’t hurt if they are kept warm while the pike cooks. Beurre blanc, apart from the initial reduction, must be prepared at the last minute. So, if possible, get somebody else to drain and dish up the pike and vegetables, while you concentrate on the sauce.

NOTE Remember that spinach and lemon juice can be substituted for sorrel. Or else tart gooseberries.

QUENELLES

A quenelle is a kind of dumpling, an aristocratic dumpling I hurry to say, a light and delicate confection with little resemblance to the doughy bullet of mass catering.

In the past, quenelles have really been a garnishing element in grand cookery, part of the delicious bits and pieces surrounding a large carp or salmon, or a dish of sole. The wonderful dishes that Carême invented in his kitchens at Brighton, for the Prince Regent, often contained quenelles; with a crayfish purée, poached oysters, poached soft roes, slices of truffle and mushroom heads, they were certainly a garnish à la régence. Later, less majestic chefs formed the quenelles round a couple of poached oysters or a piece of soft roe, and served them on their own with a fine sauce. Thanks to electricity (instead of a collection of kitchen boys) we can now make them at home, store them in the deep freeze (after they have been rolled into shape), and produce them whenever a light but tempting dish is required in the evening.

There are two basic kinds, for which recipes follow. I advise you to attempt neither unless your kitchen has electrical machinery such as a liquidizer or processor. Pike is the classic fish to use, which is why the recipes are placed at this point in the book, but any good firm fish can be used instead – sole, salmon, turbot, sea bream, John Dory, whiting or monkfish.

Both kinds of quenelle are poached in barely simmering water or fish fumet*, and served with a fine creamy sauce. The best is sauce Nantua (p. 465), or lobster sauce (p. 212); but for most of us a sauce aurore*, a white wine sauce*, mushroom sauce* or Mornay sauce* is more practical.

Quenelles de Brochet

This recipe produces the more solid, cylindrical quenelles that are sold in cans and frozen packages in many French grocery shops. You will sometimes see them in high-class food shops in this country. They are not cheaper to make at home, but you will be sure of the ingredients and of a finer flavour.

500 g (1 lb) pike or other firm fish fillets

250 g (8 oz) fresh white breadcrumbs

125 ml (4 fl oz) milk

200 g (7 oz) unsalted butter

2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks

salt, pepper, nutmeg

Purée the fish in a blender or processor. Mix the breadcrumbs with the milk and squeeze them together in your hand so that the surplus milk runs away and you are left with a thick paste. Cut up and soften the butter. Using the electric beater, mix the bread paste, then the softened butter, into the fish, until the mixture is smooth and firm. Add the eggs and yolks one by one. Mix well, season and chill.

Roll into sausage shapes on a floured board, or put