Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [162]
There are other Cornish pies that sound much more authentic. One has alternate layers of soaked salted pilchards and leeks that have been scalded in milk. When everything is cooked, the crust is raised at one side, the liquor drained off and replaced with scalded cream. In another, boned and rolled herring or mackerel are packed into a dish with breadcrumbs. On top go some slices of bacon with a gill of cream and a splash of tarragon vinegar. The dish is covered with pastry, apart from the fish heads which are arranged in the centre. When you serve the pie, a sprig of parsley is put into the mouth of each fish. Those recipes were recorded in 1929.
To make a good effect with stargazy pie, you need eight pilchards or small herrings or large sardines and a shallow pie dish that will take them tail to tail in the centre, their heads leaning on the rim. You also need 750 g (1½ lb) shortcrust pastry: roll out half and line the pie dish.
Clean and bone the fish, leaving their heads in place. Season inside lavishly with salt and pepper, then either chopped herbs or French mustard. Fold them back into shape and arrange on the dish so that their heads lie evenly on the rim. Fill the gaps between the fish with a mixture of chopped streaky bacon, crumbled hard-boiled egg and breadcrumbs, in roughly equal quantities.
Cover with the remaining pastry, pressing it down firmly between the heads so that the fish lie underneath a wavy blanket. Make a central hole and brush with beaten egg. Bake in the oven preheated to gas 7, 220°C (425°F), for about 20 minutes, to firm and colour the pastry lightly. Then give it 25 minutes more at gas 4, 180°C (350°F), or until done.
CANNED SARDINES
Sardines were the first fish to be canned – in the 1820s, in Nantes, many years before the Canadians started to can salmon. The best of the Nantes sardines – the market is of the caveat emptor kind and likely to become more so – are still the first in flavour, too. This is because the methods of canning have produced not just a poor substitute for the real thing (like canned crab and lobster) but something worth eating in its own right.
From the north to the south of Europe, and the North Africa, one can make a choice between many brands, offering roughly three categories of sardine.
There are the brisling, tiny fish which are really sprats and not sardines at all. Smoking is what gives them their individual flavour. They are eaten in the same way as sardines, and most people think of them as Skipper’s sardines, whatever the law says about nomenclature (they are conscientiously described on the label as Norwegian smoked brisling, and we are being encouraged just to call them Skippers).
Then there are the sardines that are really quite large – a little too large – from Portugal, Spain and North Africa. They are steamed in oil and packed in the same oil, which in not necessarily olive oil. The trade to Great Britain is enormous. Look for the Marie Elisabeth brand, partly on account of the excellent olive oil used but also because the sardines have been allowed to mature for a year in the can before being put out for sale. This is important. The ideal thing is to make a store of sardines, and turn them regularly every few months, using them in rotation: this gives the olive oil and fish juices a chance to intermingle, to the benefit of the flavour of the sardine.
Some of these fish may not be sardines at all, so read the small print. What is even more important, as Alan Davidson pointed out in Petits