Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [191]
SOLE À LA ROUENNAISE
This sole in the Rouen style is another exception to the rule of white wine with fish. You will not find that the robust flavour of red wine spoils the delicate sole and shellfish.
Serves 2
1 large sole, skinned
125 ml (4 fl oz) red wine
2 shallots, finely chopped
125 g (4 oz) butter
12 large mussels
12 oysters (if possible)
12 cooked prawns or shrimps in their shells
125 g (4 oz) button mushrooms
1 egg yolk
salt, pepper
Put the sole into a shallow pan. Add wine, shallots and 30 g (1 oz) of butter. Simmer until cooked.
Meanwhile open the mussels in the usual way (p. 239). Discard their shells and strain their cooking liquor into a bowl. Open the oysters (p. 254); simmer them in their own liquor for a few moments until their edges just start to curl. Strain the cooking juice into the mussel liquor. Peel eight of the prawns or shrimps. Cook the mushrooms in 30 g (1 oz) of the butter. These mussels, oysters, prawns or shrimps and mushrooms are the garnishes for the sole. Keep them warm. The mussel and oyster juice will be required for the sauce.
Remove the cooked sole to a hot serving dish. (Pour its cooking juices into the mussel and oyster juices.) Arrange the garnishes around the sole and keep everything warm.
Pour the fish juices into a pan and reduce to a fairly strong-flavoured liquid. Beat the egg yolk with a little of this liquid, then tip it back into the pan and stir over a low heat until the sauce thickens (do not boil, or it will curdle). Off the heat, whisk in the remaining butter, season and strain the sauce over the sole. Place the four unshelled prawns in the centre, and serve.
SOLE MEUNIÈRE AUX POIREAUX
Proust was inordinately fond of fried sole; indeed, it was the only dish he ever finished during the last years of his life.
Proust: My dear Céleste, I think I could manage a fried sole. How quickly do you think I could have one, if it’s not too much trouble?
Céleste: Straightaway, Monsieur.
Proust: How kind you are, Céleste.
And good, kind, patient Céleste would rush out to a fishmonger’s nearby in the place Saint-Augustin, run back with the sole, cook it and present it to Proust on a clean, doubled napkin – to soak up any fat that might remain – with four lemon halves, one at each napkin corner.
Had Proust been alive today, and a young man, he would I think have appreciated a new French version of Sole meunière, a version with lightly cooked, shredded leeks, not too many, just enough to make the fish even more appetizing than usual. The two secrets are clarified butter and finely cut leek. Other fish can be substituted, obviously other flatfish, from turbot down to plaice, or small filleted whiting.
Serves 4
250 g (8 oz) butter, clarified*
1½ kg (3 lb) skinned sole, preferably two large ones
seasoned flour
cayenne pepper
4 medium leeks, trimmed to their white stalks
salt
lemon quarters (optional)
Strain the clarified butter into two fish pans, large enough to accommodate one sole each, with room to spare. It is helpful to be able to cook all the fish at the same time: see the note at the end if not.
Turn the fish in seasoned flour, to which you have added cayenne according to taste: I add enough just to make the flour slightly pink. Heat the pans, shake any surplus flour from the fish, and put in to cook – not too fast. After 3–4 minutes, according to the thickness of the fish, see if it is nicely browned underneath. Turn it over, if so, otherwise leave a little longer.
As it cooks, slice the leeks thinly so that they tumble into green and white shreds.
Add the leeks to the turned fish, and stir them about carefully so that they cook lightly in the butter. They should not entirely lose their crispness, neither should