Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [233]
Serves 4–6
créole sauce*
salt, pepper
750 g (1½ lb) piece of sunfish
butter
Make the sauce and adjust the seasoning (this can be done well in advance – the day before if you like). A good half an hour before the meal, brown the sunfish steak lightly in butter and then lower it into the pan of simmering sauce. Allow half an hour’s cooking time, but test after 20 minutes to see if the fish is ready.
It may be imagination on my part, but I think that this kind of dish is best cooked in a large round shallow earthenware pot of the Spanish or Portuguese kind. Use a heat-diffuser if you cook by gas. Put the sauce in to reheat, add the browned sunfish and complete the cooking as above.
SUNFISH IN CREAM
A beautiful recipe of great simplicity. Baked in cream, the sunfish becomes soft and unctuous, delicately flavoured with the aromatic seasonings.
Serves 6
1 kg (2 lb) piece of sunfish
small onions
pieces of carrot
bay leaf, parsley, thyme
salt, pepper, nutmeg
up to 500 ml (18 oz) single or whipping cream
60 g (2 oz) butter
2 large egg yolks
Choose a pot into which the sunfish fits closely. Pack the gaps with onions and pieces of carrot. Lay a large bay leaf on top of the fish, tuck a couple of sprigs each of parsley and thyme down the side. Season well with salt, freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg. Pour in enough cream to cover the fish by ½ cm (¼ inch) – the better your packing, the less cream will be required. Dab the butter on top. Cover with kitchen foil or the lid of the pot and bake in a fairly hot oven (gas 5–6, 190–200°C/375–400°F). Test after 25 minutes. The centre should have lost its transparent look entirely – on the other hand, you don’t want to overcook fish, particularly solid-fleshed creatures like sunfish, tuna, sturgeon and so on.
When it is just cooked, transfer the fish with its bay leaf to a serving plate, and keep warm while you finish the sauce. Strain the cooking liquid into a small pan. Beat the egg yolks in a basin, add a little of the cooking liquid, then pour the lot into the pan again. Set over a low heat, and stir until the consistency is that of smooth, thick cream. Don’t let it boil or the eggs will curdle. Check the seasoning and pour over the fish.
Serve with a few small boiled potatoes, or brown bread of not too strong a flavour.
RED SNAPPER Lutjanidae spp.
Red snappers are easily recognized. They look as if a designer has improved the conventional fish shape by emphasizing the curve of the head and back, flattening the belly and pointing the nose; an elegant adjustment. The scales blush from silver-pink to a deep rose-red; although much of this colour has to be removed before the fish is cooked, something remains of its beauty. The flesh is firm and pleasant.
Freshly caught red snapper on the Atlantic sea coast of America is good eating. In Britain, we used to have to buy from small frozen shoals which needed chiselling apart. Although they are more readily available now, bream or any firm-fleshed fish could be used instead.
BLAFF OF BOURGEOIS
A lively cheerful dish, with an elegant turn, which is not surprising since it comes from Anne Rosenzweig, chef and co-proprietor of New York’s Arcadia restaurant. She is one of the bright stars of American cookery. The red pepper marmalade can be made at the same time as the rest of the dish, or in advance; I’ve found that any left over goes well with other fish, with poultry and also with cheese and vegetable dishes.
Serves 6
800 g (1¾ lb) fillet of snapper
salt, freshly ground black pepper
500 g (1 lb) red onions
1 tablespoon chopped shallot
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 litres (3½ pt) shellfish stock*
2 large heads of fennel, cut in julienne strips
2 large potatoes,