Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [16]
In its classic version, this sauce is cooked with the dish in the style of a stew (see Lobster à l’américaine, p. 213.) But if you can only buy ready-boiled lobster, or if you serve the sauce with a fish that can’t stand the fierce reduction, for instance huss or hake or quenelles of whiting, here is a recipe allowing for this:
750 g (1½ lb) tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
150 ml (5 fl oz) olive oil
500 g (1 lb) cheap white fish
seasoned flour
125 g (4 oz) chopped shallot or mild onion
125 g (4 oz) chopped carrot
1 large clove garlic, crushed
75 ml (2½ fl oz) cognac
shell of lobster, crab or prawn
300 ml (10 fl oz) dry white wine
150 ml (5 fl oz) strong beef stock
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, sugar
tarragon and chervil or parsley
1 good tablespoon butter
Cook the tomatoes to a thick purée in half the olive oil. Cut the white fish into large cubes, turn them in seasoned flour and fry in the rest of the olive oil with the shallot, carrot and garlic. When the fish is lightly browned, add the warmest cognac and set it alight. Turn the mixture, so that the flames last as long as possible. Add lobster, crab or prawn shell, the wine, stock and tomatoes. Season with plenty of black pepper and ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook vigorously for half an hour, or until the sauce looks thick rather than watery. Remove as much shell as possible, then briefly liquidize. Correct the seasoning, add herbs, and reheat. Stir in the tablespoon of butter, pour over the cooked fish and serve.
If you are using ready-boiled lobster, reheat it in the sauce before adding the butter.
NOTE As with sauce aurore*, the important thing is to use real tomatoes. By all means help the flavour with a little tomato concentrate, if it seems necessary, but never make tomato concentrate a substitute for tomatoes.
SAUCE BERCY
This intense concentration of onions, wine and meat essence usually accompanies plainly-cooked food such as grilled steak or liver. But if the juices from a foil-baked fish are substituted for meat essence, it goes equally well with bass, bream or salmon.
1 heaped tablespoon chopped shallot or onion
1 level tablespoon butter
150 ml (5 fl oz) white wine
salt, pepper, lemon juice
chopped parsley
About 25 minutes before the fish is cooked, put the shallot or onion and the butter into a small heavy pan. Cook gently until golden and transparent. Add the wine and boil hard until there is about a couple of tablespoons of liquid left. Remove from the heat. Transfer the cooked fish to a warm serving plate. Pour the juices from the foil, about 300 ml (10 fl oz) of fish fumet, into the onion and wine mixture. Reheat, and correct the seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. The amount required is bound to vary according to the type and quantity of seasoning put into the foil package with the fish. Add some chopped parsley and serve very hot in a separate sauceboat.
Remember that this is intended to be a concentrated sauce, to be eaten in small quantities. If the juices in the foil were too abundant and watery – though this is unlikely – the sauce must be reduced a second time before the final seasoning.
NOTE A more copious amount of sauce can be provided by adding up to 150 ml (5 fl oz) of double cream or thicken with beurre manié*.
BEURRE BLANC
The château of La Goulaine, south of Nantes, has a reputation for Muscadet, the wine of the district. It also has a reputation for being the birthplace of beurre blanc, one of the best of fish sauces. The first reputation is well-bestowed; I am not quite so sure about the second. A love of good food is often garnished with undeclared fairy tales. But this one has plausibility.
One day towards the turn of the century, so the story goes, the Marquis of Goulaine’s cook, Clémence, was preparing a dinner party. She asked a helper to get on with the béarnaise, while she attended to other things. When everything