Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [19]
SAMPHIRE SAUCE
This recipe comes from Alan Davidson’s North Atlantic Seafood;
For 500 g (1 lb) fish, take 375 g (12 oz) prepared samphire, well washed and with the hard bits of stalk near the roots cut off, and cook it for 10 minutes in a covered pot of 4 tablespoons water. Drain it and use an electric blender to turn it into a purée, incorporating 90 g (3 oz) butter in it. The purée is then heated and poured over the fish as a sauce. It has a marvellously bright green colour – any other so-called green sauce would go even greener with envy – and a delicious flavour. But it is quite salty, so on no account add salt.
TWO SORREL SAUCES
There was a time, twenty or so years ago, that the French were leaving their countryside in large numbers, leaving behind them houses they could not sell. Many a time I remember walking along a lane, and seeing a cluster of farm buildings over a hedge. There would be no barks to greet one’s arrival, no flutter and squawk of fowls on the dung heap. One would see nothing hanging from the nails by the kitchen door. Passing by the house, one would come to the kitchen garden, overgrown perhaps but undeniably there. Pushing the gate open, freeing it from the overhanging rose, one would stumble over a lusty patch of sorrel, placed where it was easy to grab a handful to flavour the evening’s soup, or to make a sauce for the fish brought home from the market. How grateful that clear flavour is in the spring, sharp as lemon juice to one’s tired winter taste.
This recipe comes from Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking.
1 large handful sorrel leaves (approx. 125 g/4 oz)
30 g (1 oz) butter
125 ml (4 fl oz) each single and double cream (250 ml/8 fl oz in all)
stock or juice from cooking the fish
salt, pepper
Remove the toughest stems from the sorrel. Wash and melt it to a purée in the butter. This takes no more than three or four minutes. In a saucepan, bring the cream to the boil, stir in the sorrel and 3 or 4 tablespoons of stock from cooking the fish. If the fish has been fried or grilled, add some water to the pan juices, boil up well and use them instead of stock. Season to taste. Serve with mackerel, salmon, white fish, shad, pike.
The next recipe came from Mrs Stevenson when she was at the Horn of Plenty near Tavistock in Devon. She served it with the delicious Tamar salmon.
about 30 leaves of sorrel, 1 large handful
30 g (1 oz) butter
500 g (1 lb) unsalted butter
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons water
salt, lemon juice
Make a sorrel purée as above. Put the unsalted butter into a saucepan, cut in chunks, and bring to the boil over a gentle heat. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and water in a large pudding basin. Set the basin over a pan of barely simmering water. Keep stirring the yolks, and as the butter comes to a frothing boil, pour a little of it on to the yolks. Go on beating – a wooden spoon is best for this – and add the butter slowly: the mayonnaise process. As the sauce thickens the butter may be added more rapidly. Watch the water underneath – it should not boil.
When the sauce coats the spoon, take the basin from the pan and stir in the sorrel purée to taste. Add salt and lemon juice if required.
NOTE Of course there is no reason why the sorrel purée shouldn’t be added to the conventionally made hollandaise sauce*. This method, though, is quicker.
FRESH TOMATO SAUCE
Skin, seed and chop 2 large tomatoes or 500 g (1 lb) of well-flavoured smaller tomatoes. Cook a small chopped onion and 2 chopped cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. Stir in the tomato, raise the heat. If you want a Latin-American accent, add a chopped, seeded chilli and a final seasoning of coriander. If you prefer the Italian style, omit the chilli and use basil as the final herb. Salt, pepper, sugar as necessary. Cook as briefly as possible so that you concentrate the flavour without losing freshness and texture.
GOLD SAUCES
MAYONNAISE
I believe that the best mayonnaise, in particular if it is to go with cold fish, should