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Strain the cooking liquid into a clean pan and boil it down to 300 ml (10 fl oz). Stir in the béchamel sauce, which should be on the firm side, and 2 tablespoons of cream, beaten up with the egg yolk. Cook without boiling until the sauce thickens nicely, stirring all the time. Place the pan over another pan of simmering water, so that it keeps warm but doesn’t cook any further while you finish the recipe.

Whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons of cream until they are light and stiff. Heat the grapes through in just-boiling water, then arrange them round the fish. Stir the last 2 tablespoons of butter into the sauce to give it a good gloss and flavour. Lastly fold in the whipped cream and pour the sauce over fish and grapes. Brown lightly under a hot grill and serve immediately.

NOTE Small seedless grapes do not have a long season, neither do the muscatel grapes recommended by Elizabeth David as the right ones for this fine and delicate dish.

If the only white grapes on sale are the coarser Almerian, which will need skinning and de-pipping, buy a cheaper fish and follow the recipe on p. 352 for Sea bass or bream à la vendangeuse. (I wonder if this country dish was the original inspiration for M. Malley’s Sole Véronique?)

FILETS DE SOLE WALEWSKA

This dish – invented, I believe, by Escoffier – is named after Napoleon’s Polish mistress, Marie Walewska. It is simple to prepare, but expensive on account of the lobster and truffles. Dublin Bay prawns could be used instead, or crawfish tails.

Serves 4

8 fillets of sole

450 ml (15 fl oz) fish stock*

600 ml (1 pt) béchamel sauce*

1½ tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

30 g (1 oz) butter

8 slices truffle

8–12 slices cooked lobster or cooked prawns or shrimps

Poach the sole in the fish stock. When just cooked, transfer it to a serving dish and keep warm. Boil the stock down vigorously until it has a strong concentrated flavour. Heat the béchamel sauce, add the stock to it, and boil them both together for a few moments. Off the heat, stir the cheese and butter into the sauce. Arrange the truffle slices and lobster or prawns on top of the sole, pour the sauce over them, and place under a very hot grill for a few moments to glaze.

FILLETS OF SOLE WITH BANANAS

A friend once told me that she had eaten a delightful dish of fresh haddock with banana cubes, lightly fried in butter. With that on my mind, I tried to find similar recipes for banana with fish, and came at last to a French version. In it, new potatoes and sticks of fresh coconut were deep-fried with the fish fillets. This you can do, but I prefer the method given below.

Serves 6

12 fillets of sole (whiting can be used)

salt, pepper

3 large bananas

seasoned flour

coconut cream, p. 478

18 small new potatoes

3 medium carrots

grated zest and juice of 1 large orange

1 good teaspoon butter

Season the fish. Peel and cut each banana into three across, then into nice little sticks. Sprinkle a tray with seasoned flour, and put the fish on it, skin or skinned side up. At the wider end of each piece, lay a bundle of banana sticks. Roll up and secure with cocktail sticks or tie with thread. Set aside in a cool place.

Prepare the coconut cream, and set it to heat through over the pan in which you boil the potatoes. Grate the carrots coarsely into a pan which already holds the orange zest and juice and the butter. Cover closely and cook briefly, so that the shreds are tender but still a little crisp. Strain off the small amount of carrot juice into the coconut sauce, and add a tablespoon of carrot, swirling it round.

Finally deep-fry the fish until it is nicely browned: beware of overcooking. Arrange on a warm dish with potatoes and carrots. Pour on a little of the sauce, and serve the rest separately.

FILLETS OF SOLE WITH CREAM AND MUSHROOM SAUCE

This recipe is suitable for almost all fillets of white fish – although obviously with sole, turbot and John Dory