[Illustration]
This is a favorite manner with the French of cooking fish. The fish is
served in the same dish in which it is cooked. It is called a _gratin_
dish--generally an oval silver-plated platter, or it may be of
block-tin. A fish _au gratin_ is rather expensive, on account of the
mushrooms; however, the French canned mushrooms (_champignons_) are
almost as good as fresh ones, and are much cheaper.
_Receipt._--First put into a saucepan butter size of an egg, then a
handful of shallots, or one large onion minced fine; let it cook ten
minutes, when mix in half a cupful of flour; then mince three-fourths
of a cupful of mushrooms. Add a tea-cupful of hot water (or better,
stock) to the saucepan, then a glass of white or red wine, salt, and
pepper. After mixing them well, add the minced mushrooms and a little
minced parsley. Skin the fish, cut off the head and tail, split it in
two, laying bare the middle bone; slip the knife under the bone,
removing it smoothly. Now cut the fish in pieces about an inch long.
Moisten the _gratin_ dish with butter, arrange the cuts of fish
tastefully on it, pour over the sauce, then sprinkle the whole with
bread-crumbs which have been dried and grated. Put little pieces of
butter over all, and bake. The dish may be garnished with little
diamonds of fried or toasted and buttered bread around the edge. Or,
This is a pretty dish _au gratin_: Put mashed potatoes (which must be
still hot when arranged) in a circle on the outside of the _gratin_
dish, then a row of the pieces of fish (which have been cooked as just
described) around the middle of the dish, or just inside the potatoes.
Put some mashed potatoes also in the middle of the dish. Garnish here
and there with mushrooms. Pour the sauce just described and bread-crumbs
over the fish, and bake five or ten minutes.
FISH À LA CRÈME (_Mrs. Audenreid_).
Boil a fish weighing four pounds in salted water. When done, remove the
skin, and flake it, leaving out the bones. Boil one quart of rich milk.
Mix butter size of a small egg with three table-spoonfuls of flour, and
stir it smoothly in the milk, adding also two or three sprigs of parsley
and half an onion chopped fine, a little Cayenne pepper, and salt. Stir
it over the fire until it has thickened.
Butter a _gratin_ dish. Put in first a layer of fish, then of dressing,
and continue in alternation until all the fish is used, with dressing on
top. Sprinkle sifted bread-crumbs over the top. Bake half an hour.
Garnish with parsley and slices of hard-boiled egg.
* * * * *
As the rules for boiling, broiling, frying, cooking _au gratin_, and
stewing are the same for nearly all kinds of fish, I will not repeat
the receipts for each particular one. I will only suggest the best
manner for cooking certain kinds, and will add certain receipts not
under the general rule: