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GRILLED BLUEFISH

Clean the fish, and bone it from the back, so that it opens out like a kipper. Brush with melted butter and put under the grill cut side up. When it is nearly done, turn it over and grill the other side.

Serve with melted butter sharpened with capers or lemon juice, or with pats of maître d’hôtel butter*. Mussel or oyster sauce can go with it, or a béarnaise*.

ANTOINE’S POMPANO EN PAPILLOTE

One of the best known recipes for pompano was devised in New Orleans at the beginning of this century by the son of the Marseillais founder, Antoine Alciatore. The occasion was, I believe, the visit to that city by the great Brazilian balloonist, Alberto Santos-Dumont. Like the Alciatores, he was French by origin, and no doubt appreciated the fine contents of the papillotes which had puffed up in the oven to the shape of one of his own dirigibles.

The early 1900s were the era of paper-bag cookery. The en papillote method had long been known, but was generally unsatisfactory because the taste of paper clung to the food inside. This problem was overcome by the development of special paper which did not have this disadvantage. In England, Spicers created the famous Soyer bag, at the instigation of Nicholas Soyer, grandson of the great chef, whose Paper-bag Cookery was published in 1911. Nowadays we use foil, which is completely neutral, and has the extra advantage over paper of being more efficiently twisted into a seal. Soyer demonstrated that almost anything could be cooked by this method, from cakes to huge joints of beef, but I think it is most successful of all with fish. If you cannot buy pompano, do not despair. Use fillets of any good firm fish instead – John Dory, turbot or brill, salmon trout, rainbow trout or bass. The rich crab sauce is excellent with this type of fish.

Serves 6

6 fillets pompano

salt, pepper

skin, bones and head for stock

1 chopped shallot or 1 heaped tablespoon chopped onion

90 g (3 oz) butter

600 ml (1 pt) dry white wine

250 g (8 oz) crab meat

250 g (8 oz) shelled prawns

½ clove garlic, chopped

250 g (8 oz) onion, chopped

1 sprig thyme

1 bay leaf

1 heaped tablespoon plain flour

2 egg yolks

Season the fish. Simmer skin, bones, etc. in 1 litre (1¾ pt) water for 30 minutes, strain into a measuring jug (there should be about 450 ml/15 fl oz of stock). Cook the shallot in 30 g (1 oz) butter until it begins to soften; add fillets. When they are lightly coloured on both sides, pour in the wine and simmer until the fish is just cooked and no more. Strain off the wine and set it aside. Leave the fish to cool.

Meanwhile, lightly fry crab, prawns and half the crushed garlic in another 30 g (1 oz) of butter. Add the onions and the remaining garlic. Cook gently for 10 minutes, covered. Add herbs and 300 ml (10 fl oz) of the fish stock. Make a thick sauce in the usual way with the remaining butter, the flour and the stock. Incorporate the white wine in which the fish was cooked, and the crab and onion mixture. Thicken further with the egg yolks. Correct seasoning. Remove the thyme stalks and bay leaf.

If you want to present the pompano properly, cut six paper or foil hearts large enough to contain the fillets. (Otherwise cut six oblongs, about 23 x 30 cm/9 x 12 inches.) Brush them lightly with oil. Put a layer of sauce on one half of each heart, then the fish and more sauce. Fold over the other side and twist the edges tightly together to make a close seal. Put these parcels on a baking sheet; place them in a very hot oven (gas 8, 230 °C/450 °F) for about 10 minutes.

NOTE This is said, by Marion Brown in The Southern Cook Book, to be the genuine recipe from Antoine’s. I have seen variations elsewhere in which crab meat alone was used, no prawns, and 125 g (4 oz) of sliced mushrooms added to the onions.

There is no reason why such a delicious sauce should not be served with pompano, and other fish, which have been poached in white wine, without