WHITEBAIT

Crisp-fried little fish, eaten with French Fries and a good green salad .  . . one of the few really good British dishes.

This is a real delicacy, not always available -at the fish market—but if you happen to be near water, and fresh "shiners" can be had from the fishing bait store, you've got whitebait.

Ingredients

3 pounds whitebait
Seasoned flour - one cup or more
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp minced chervil or fresh parsley
1/2 tsp paprika

Heat the fish-frying deep fat kettle.

Rinse the whitebait (or shiners) thoroughly; drain any excess water, and toss them in a paper bag filled with the seasoned flour.

Place the floured whitebait in a frying basket, immerse in hot fat for 2 minutes, drain, garnish with lemon and fresh parsley and serve with plenty of tartar sauce.

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Whitebait should be crisp and well-drained, and it's ac­ceptable to eat them in your fingers—holding each fish by its little tail and dunking in the tartar sauce.

LOBSTER THERMIDOR

LOBSTER THERMIDOR

Think of gourmet cooking - think of Lobster Thermidor!

Lobster, in a rich wine sauce, baked in the lobster shell. A traditional dish, named for the French Revolution . . . one cannot but applaud the single-mindedness that could create a new recipe in the shadow of the Guillotine, but per­haps that is why the French remain the masters of gas­tronomy.

Ingredients

2 cooked lobsters split in half at the fish market

1 tin condensed cream of mushroom soup

2 T white wine

1/2 cup thin cream

2 T butter

1 tsp grated onion

4 minced mushroom stems (optional)

Grated parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and 2 more tablespoons butter

Remove all meat from lobsters, including claw meat; re­serve the cleaned body shells. Cut lobster meat into small pieces.

Melt 2 T butter, add onion, mushroom stems and lobster, and saute for 5 minutes.

Combine soup, wine and cream in a double boiler and heat until well blended and smooth, adding some minced parsley if you like.

Add lobster mixture, and heat gently for 5 minutes. Then apportion among the lobster shells, sprinkle thickly with grated cheese and dust with bread crumbs.

Dot with remaining butter and bake in a hot (450) oven for 10 minutes, or until the top browns.

Click here for more great gourmet fish recipes

SOLE MARGUERY

SOLE MARGUERY

Fish fillets in creamy shellfish sauce.

This recipe will require all your charm at the fish market —because you need so many ingredients and such small quantities of each—but the result is worth cajolery.

4 fillets of sole

8 oysters

8 Cherrystone clams

1 cooked package cleaned shrimp ( or 12 fresh-cooked, shelled)

4 sea scallops

1 cup Sauterne

1 cup water

1/2 lemon. sliced thin

1 tin condensed mushroom soup

3/4 cup milk

2 T sherry

1/4 tsp each dry mustard and paprika

1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

4 mushroom caps

4 T minced parsley

Grated parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375.

Combine Sauterne, water and lemon, bring to a boil, lower SOLE MARGUERYheat sharply and poach fish fillets for 3 minutes.

Remove fish to a buttered shallow baking dish. Surround with drained shellfish and decorate with mushroom caps; arrange for easy service in 4 portions.

Combine soup, milk, sherry, mustard, paprika, Worcestershire, and blend smoothly.

Gently pour over the fish fillets. Bake 15 minutes in the oven, and remove.

Increase heat to broil; dust the dish with cheese, parsley and paprika, and broil for 4 minutes or until lightly browned.

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BOUILLABAISSE, CIOPPINO or ZUPPA DA PESCA, and PAELLA

 These are traditional French, Italian and Spanish versions of the same dish: a fish soup-stew, which is served as a main dish accompanied by a green salad and plenty of crisp French or Italian-style bread.

Paella dates from the 14th Century, is supposed to have been created by a Spanish king who would obviously have been happier as a chef (just as Louis XVI of France ought to have been a carpenter). The name is a corruption of "Para Ella," because it was dedicated to the king's mistress-of-the moment.

Paella combines chicken and sweet sausage with shellfish and rice. It will take every blessed minute of your quick-cookery allotment, plus plenty of preparation in ad­vance—and perhaps it should not be included here, but it definitely belongs with Bouillabaisse and Cioppino.

Bouillabaisse depends primarily upon several kinds of fish, both firm and soft-fleshed, with a modest addition of lobster and clams. Literal translation of Bouillabaisse is "boil-stop" —and the secret of the dish lies in fierce boiling, exactly as directed. Another secret is the combination of fish; an au­thentic Bouillabaisse de Marseilles (where the dish was origi­nated) uses at least seven different kinds of fish, and many of them are varieties unobtainable in our country. In making a bouillabaisse, however, remember that the flavors of sev­eral different kinds of fish must predominate; the shellfish are added merely as window-dressing.

Cioppino, or Zuppa da Pesca, is exactly opposite from Bouillabaisse. Here, you wish the flavors of shellfish to pre­dominate, and the bits of softer fish are the window-dressing. The cooking method of Cioppino is slightly more leisurely than for Bouillabaisse, but a final period of fierce boiling will make the smooth mixture of oil and liquid for the soup

PAELLA  ( 2 step Cookery)

1 dozen Cherrystone clams
1 box each: frozen peas and artichoke hearts
1 large tin canned tomatoes
1 box cleaned frozen shrimps
2 small sweet Spanish or Italian sausages
Diced meat from one small chicken ( pre-cooked)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 tsp each: tarragon, oregano, chevril, salt, pepper, chives
1/2 tsp saffron (soaked in 1T hot water)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups consomme
1 cup quick-cooking rice
1 minced clove garlic

      Step 1: Steam the chicken ( or cook in a pressure cooker); cool slightly and dice the meat. Slightly undercook peas, artichoke hearts and shrimp.

Step 2: saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Add consomme, rice, seasonings, chicken, tomatoes and sliced sausages. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, checking occasionally to stir and add extra consomme if needed.

Add peas, artichoke hearts, cooked shrimps, and place well-scrubbed clams on top. Cover tightly and steam for 10 minutes or until the clam shells open.

Serve with strips of pimiento for decoration.

Real Spaniards use: eels, lobster, crabs, fried eggplant sticks and oysters, mushrooms—any or all ...Paella is one of the great dishes, to be made with whatever is available.

 BOUILLABAISSE

2 pounds of mixed fish; cod or halibut, bass, mackarel, smelts, porgy or flounder, eel, red snapper, whiting, perch...have the fish cut in 1 1/2 inch serving pieces bones and all
1 small cooked lobster, cut into serving pieces (shell and all)
1 dozen clams, well scrubbed in their shells
1/4 cup olive oil
3 sliced onions
3 crushed garlic cloves
2 sliced celery stalks (including the leaves)
2 chopped scallions or 1 peeled chopped leak
2 crumbled bay leaves
4 peeled chopped very ripe tomatoes ( or a large drained tin)
4 cup bouillon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp saffron steeped in 1T hot water
1/2 tsp grated orange peel
2 cups white wine
2 tsp chopped parsley

OPTIONAL—if you live near the seashore:

2 small boiled crabs                     2 dozen   cleaned, deveined

Mussels, in place of clams          raw shrimp

Place vegetables and seasonings in a large pot—choose one with a tight cover!

Distribute the firm-fleshed fish  (cod, halibut, eel, turbot, snapper, mackerel, sea bass) atop the vegetables, add olive oil, wine, and a cup of hot water.

Bring to the boil, and boil VIOLENTLY for 5 minutes.

Add the soft-fleshed fish (smelts, whiting, porgy, perch, etc.) and boil violently for exactly 3 minutes.

Add the cooked cut lobster and scrubbed clams (as well as crabs, mussels and shrimps, if you are using them) and again boil fiercely for 8 minutes.

Remove at once from the fire.

To serve Bouillabaisse, use the large old-fashioned soup dishes if you are lucky enough to have them. Garlic or Par­mesan toasted stale bread—plus a substantial green salad— go with Bouillabaisse. Put a piece of stale bread in the bot­tom of the soup plate, apportion the various kinds of fish and shellfish on top, and add enough of the liquid to float the fish. Serve plenty of extra bread for sopping up the juice.

CIOPPINO or ZUPPA DA PESCA

1 pound bass cut in serving slices
2 cooked lobsters cut in pieces (shell and all)
1 cooked crab cut in pieces ( like the lobster)
1 package frozen cleaned shrimp
12 scrubbed Little Neck clams or mussels
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large chopped onion
2 minced cloves of garlic
2 T minced parsley
1 large chopped green pepper (seeds removed)
1 bay leaf
2 cloves
1 large tine of drained tomatoes
1 cup red wine
1 cup hot water
1 tsp salt
1 dash Cayenne pepper

Saute: onions, garlic, parsley, green pepper and seasonings in warm olive oil for 5 minutes.

Add mushrooms, tomatoes, bass and shrimp, water and wine.

Cover tightly and cook briskly for 10 minutes.

Add lobsters, crab and clams or mus­sels; cover tightly and cook briskly for 10 minutes.

     Serve in large soup plates, with plenty of fresh Italian bread, a glass of red wine, and a plain green salad

You can find more great fish gourmet recipes by Clicking Here

CLAMS CASINO, OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER, COQUILLES ST. JACQUES

CLAMS CASINO

Allow 8 to 12 Cherrystones per portion for a main dish; 4 clams for each appetizer service. Have the clams opened at the fish market and packed on the half-shells.

Sauce

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp anchovy paste

1/4 cup minced green pepper

1/4 cup grated onion

2 tsp fine chopped pimiento

4 slices raw bacon, cut in tiny pieces

salt, pepper, lemon juice

Heat the oven to 450.

Remove clams from shells and discard the juice. Bed the shells firmly in a baking pan, surrounded by crumpled alumi­num foil to keep them upright (rock salt is fancier, if you have it).

Cream butter and anchovy paste, distribute evenly among the shells. Insert a clam in each shell and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Combine chopped pepper, pimiento, onion, salt and pep­per, and distribute among the clam shells. Top with bacon bits, and bake until top browns: about 20 minutes..

OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER

Oysters highly seasoned baked on a bed of spinach

3 dozen oysters, opened on the half shell
1 package cooked frozen chopped spinach
2 cups white sauce made from condensed cream soup (celery)
3 T sherry
1 egg
2 T butter
1 T each minced onion and parsley
1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Monosodium Glutamate (Accent Powder)
6 drops Tabasco
dash of nutmeg and of Nepal pepper

Heat the oven to 375.

Bed oysters in their shells upright in crumpled aluminum foil in a baking pan. Sprinkle lightly with sherry.

Cook spinach till slightly underdone, and drain thoroughly.

Meanwhile, combine condensed soup with ½ cup milk and heat gently. Add a beaten egg, blend thoroughly and place over hot water.

In a separate skillet, melt the butter and saute onion for 3 minutes. Add drained spinach and ¼ cup of the soup, plus all seasonings, and blend. Saute for 3 minutes, distribute over the waiting oysters.

Top with the rest of "the soup-sauce, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and bake for 15 min­utes until light brown.

COQUILLES ST. JACQUES

Scallops in a wine sauce, baked in their shells.

Any shell­fish will respond to this treatment, alone or in combination.

Large scallop and clam shells can be bought in any gour­met shop; once you have them, never let them go.

1 1/2 cups white wine

1 bay leaf

2 T fresh chopped parsley

1/4 tsp each thyme and fennel seeds

1 1/2 pounds scallops

1/2 pound mushrooms

6 shallots or a small white onion

1 T butter

1 tsp lemon juice

Alternative Sauce Preperation

1 tin condensed mushroom soup

2 egg yolks

4 T heavy cream

or

4 T flour

2 egg yolks

4 T heavy cream

1 tsp salt

4 T butter

Combine wine, bay leaf, parsley, thyme and fennel; bring to a boil, add scallops and simmer 10 minutes.

Sea scallops should be cut in pieces, but the tiny Eastern bay scallops are used whole. Drain, but reserve the hot liquid.

Separately, saute sliced mushrooms, shallots or onion in butter and lemon juice, for 10 minutes. Strain and combine all the hot liquids in one pan, all the solids in another.

If you use Alternate Sauce #1: Start heating mushroom soup in a double boiler while scallops and mushrooms are cooking. Prepare the egg yolks, lightly beaten in a cup, and mixed with the cream.

Thin soup with 11/2 cups of the hot liquids, stirring smoothly. Add a bit of this to the cream and egg yolks, blend smooth, and pour back into the sauce. Stir gently as it thick­ens, for about 5 to 10 minutes, and combine with scallops and mushrooms.

Alternate Sauce #2 (This is the traditional preparation method)

Melt butter in a saucepan, add flour and stir over low heat till free of lumps. Gradually thin with 2 full cups of the hot scallop-mushroom liquid, stirring constantly.

Remove from the fire; combine egg yolks and cream, slightly beaten to­gether; add a little sauce to egg yolks and stir smooth, then return to main sauce pot. Blend thoroughly, and combine with scallops and mushrooms.

Final operation, no matter which sauce you prepare: Dis­tribute the creamed fish mixture among 4 large scallop shells, top with crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, brown under a broiler for 5 minutes.

Check out other great gourmet fish recipes by Clicking Here

FISH DISHES and RECIPES

FISH - ONE   MAN'S   POISSON

If you think you do not like fish, you will never qualify as a gourmet.

Gourmets eat and enjoy everything—when prop­erly prepared. Your dislike may come from the way in which fish is cooked. Try it baked or broiled—both of which mini­mize cooking odors.

Fish is low in calories, thus good for diets. It is also ex­tremely versatile in presentation .  .  . for instance:

1. Any fish fillet can be broiled, baked or sauteed in plenty of butter.

   2. Any fish fillet can be spread with a bit of anchovy paste —or rolled about chopped shrimps, oysters or clams before baking.

3.   Any fish fillet can be baked in a sauce of melted butter, white wine, parsley, chives, chervil, tarragon, onion, minced scallions or shallots, with a few tablespoons of lemon juice and some slivered blanched nuts.

4.   Any creamed fish will respond to a dash of nutmeg inthe sauce.

5.     Any creamed fish will taste richer with a few table­spoons of white wine added to the sauce. If you add sherry, the creamed fish automatically becomes "a la Newburg"—-and what's wrong with that?

6.        Adding a cup of mixed pickling spice to the water in which you prepare any fish or shellfish will make a considera­ble difference in flavor!

Check out these great fish dishes recipes below:-

CLAMS CASINO, OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER and COQUILLES ST JACQUES

   BOUILLABAISSE, CIOPPINO or ZUPPA DA    -PESCA, and PAELLA

   SOLE MARGUERY

  LOBSTER THERMIDOR

  WHITEBAIT

HOMARD A L'ARMORICAINE

ICED SHRMIP SOUP

ICED SHRIP SOUP

Impress yourself and your guests with this  real gourmet soup recipe

1 pound cooked shrimp
3 cups water
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespongrated lemon rind
1 cup white wine
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fresh minced chives
2 teaspoon fresh minced parsley
1/2 cup cucumber
salt and pepper to taste

Keep back 8 shrimp for garnishing; grind the remainder or pound in a mortar.

Combine ground shrimps with water, wine, bread crumbs, lemon rind, and generous pinch of ground nutmeg in a saucepan.

 Bring to a boil, and cook for 7 min­utes, stirring constantly. Strain through a fine sieve and re­turn to low heat.

Beat together the egg yolk and cream and add, stirring gently.

Heat until shrimp soup thickens slightly but do not allow to boil.

Finally, remove from fire; cool, add the chives, parsley and peeled diced cucumber.

Chill overnight in the refrigerator, and serve with a garnish of the remaining shrimps, coarse-chopped, plus a large tablespoon of sour cream or yoghurt.

Yummy!

COLD FRUIT SOUP RECIPE

COLD FRUIT SOUP—typically Scandinavian

1 medium-sized    tin    each:        1 cinnamon stick

prunes, apricots, pears            2 T cornstarch, mixed to  a paste with a

3 tart apples, peeled, cored            little cold water

   and chopped                              

Combine fruits (with their juices), apple and cinnamon, and add 1 cup water.

 Simmer very gently until the fruit is extremely mushy (about 10 minutes).

Force through a sieve into a saucepan, add the cornstarch mixed with water, bring to a boil and stir  smoothly, cooking for 2 minutes.

 Cool over­night before serving.

NOTE: Almost any fruit can be used for the cold Scandina­vian fruit soups: cherries, strawberries, raspberries—even peaches or nectarines . . . but the basic theory is always the same: Reduce the fruit to a mush with enough water to aid in extracting the natural juice; sweeten to taste (if you are using fresh fruit); spice with a cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg; thicken with cornstarch and water. Chill overnight, and serve with a few bits of fresh fruit

CLAM BROTH and GAZPACHO RECIPES

CLAM BROTH

12 Cherrystone clams
3 shallots
2 cups water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1 cup heavy whipped cream

Place scrubbed clams in a deep sauce pot, sprinkle with olive oil, add water, parsley and minced shallots.

Steam the clams open over a medium flame (10-15 minutes), while whipping the cream.

Then strain the clam broth into 4 cups, add three shelled clams to each serving, top with a generous tablespoon of the whipped cream, dusted with paprika.

COLD SOUPS are for warm evenings, to be followed by an omelet, salad, fresh fruit and coffee.

All cold soups are two-step cookery, of course, since they require time to chill.

 

GAZPACHO

There are many methods of making this famous Spanish cold cucumber soup; all are good.

Gazpacho de Malaga

4 cups chicken consomme ( soup packets dissolved in water)

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 small white onion, grated

1 large ripe tomato, peeled and seeds removed

1 cucumber, peeled and seeded

1/2 sweet red pepper, seeds removed

4 T cooked rice

2 T olive oil

Dice tomato, cucumber and red pepper; combine all the ingredients, mix thoroughly and chill overnight.

Gazpacho de Cordoba

2 peeled seeded cucumbers finely cubed

2 cloves pressed garlic

2 T olive oil

2 cups water

2 cups heavy cream

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp salt

Mix garlic, cucumbers and olive oil; let stand.

Bring water to a boil, add salt, and cornstarch mixed to a smooth paste with 3 tablespoons of cold     water.

Stir until thick and smooth.

Pour cornstarch mixture over cucumbers. Cool, and slowly add the cream, stirring constantly. Chill  overnight and serve ice-cold.

Tarata

A Levantine version of Gazppacho, using eggplant instead of the cucumbers

2 green peppers, skinned and seeded

2 small eggplants, skinned and seeded

6 T olive oil

3 cups yoghurt

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 colves of garlic, pressed

a pinch each of Cayenne and powdered mint

Cook minced peppers and eggplants in oil very gently for about 15 minutes; do not brown.

When soft, mash finely, and mix with all other ingredients.

Chill overnight and serve ice-cold.