Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [22]
SAUCE TARTARE This is either a mayonnaise or a vinaigrette seasoned with shallots or spring onions, and fines herbes, plus capers and gherkins to taste. The sauce should be thick and speckled with these ingredients.
See individual sections for other kinds of mayonnaise, i.e. Anchoiade (Anchovy mayonnaise), Crab mayonnaise, Lobster mayonnaise.
HORSERADISH SAUCE WITH FRESH WALNUTS
One November at the turn of the century, the great chef Escoffier was invited to a shooting weekend in the Haute-Savoie. Saturday lunch began with a dish of ombles-chevalier (a speciality of the lac du Bourget, in nearby Savoie) which had been cooked, and left to cool, in white wine from his host’s own vineyard. The surprising thing was the sauce which accompanied the fish; it was made from horseradish, and the juicy fresh walnuts which are so delicious an item of French meals at that time of year.
Now omble-chevalier, or arctic char, isn’t likely to come our way very often, but there is no reason why the exquisite sauce shouldn’t be served with trout of various kinds (including salmon trout), other char, and grayling, which have been poached in a white wine court bouillon.
150 g (5 oz) shelled walnuts
1 dessertspoon caster sugar
2 tablespoons white breadcrumbs
300 ml (10 fl oz) double cream
pinch of salt
1 dessertspoon lemon juice or wine vinegar
150 g (5 oz) grated horseradish
If you have been able to buy fresh walnuts, you will find that the pale skin is easily removed; older walnuts need to have boiling water poured over them before the darkened skins can be rubbed off. This sounds a fiddly business, but it is worth doing because the sauce will taste much more delicate without the slight bitterness one can get from walnuts. Chop them finely, and mix with the sugar, breadcrumbs, cream, salt and part of the lemon juice or wine vinegar. Now add the horseradish slowly, to taste (if you have no fresh horseradish, use one of the prepared brands – again to taste), and the rest of the lemon juice or vinegar, as necessary. The sauce can be made in the blender. For ways of using horseradish with hot fish, see Poached turbot with horseradish, p. 435, and Carpe au bleu with horseradish sauce, p. 70.
ROUILLE
A fiery sauce of Mediterranean origin, which is served with Bouillabaisse fish soups and stews, or with fish in a large mixture such as ailloli garni. Here are two recipes:
1. Pound in a mortar 2 cloves of garlic and the flesh of 2 small red chilli peppers. Add the liver of bream or red mullet, if they are appearing in the final dish.
Squeeze out a thick, crustless slice of white bread in a little fish stock. Add to the garlic and pepper. Stir in gradually, as if you were making a mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a little fish stock, or the juices from cooking the fish in foil.
2. If a richer sauce is required, pound 3 cloves of garlic with the 2 red peppers. Beat in 2 egg yolks, then gradually add 250 ml (8 fl oz) olive oil, and season with French mustard, salt and pepper. This is excellent with salt cod or cod fritters.
SAFFRON SAUCE
This beautiful sauce for fish was given to me by Tom Hearne when he was at the Hole in the Wall restaurant in Bath. It is for steaks of pike, hake, turbot, halibut or bass, baked in the oven with a little fish stock.
Serves 4
generous pinch of saffron
600 ml (1 pt) fish stock*, heated
125 g (4 oz) butter
60 g (2 oz) plain flour
1 small red and 1 small green pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped
150 ml (5 fl oz) cream
2 tablespoons Madeira
lemon juice
Dissolve the saffron in the stock (this should be made with some dry white wine and a splash