Cookery for every household

1479. Eel Pie, Hot (Pâté d'Anguilles) 2 lbs. eels. Seasoning. Veal forcemeat, recipe 1281. 1 pt. good white sauce. 1 or 2 hard-boiled eggs. Rough -puff or flaky pastry. Skin and bone the eels, cut them in small pieces, and season with pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice. Make some veal forcemeat and put a layer of it at the foot of a pie dish. Arrange the pieces of eel on the top, and pour over them 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of good white or bechamel sauce. Put another layer of forcemeat on the top, and arrange the egg cut in small pieces round. Cover the pie with pastry according to directions given on p. 337, and bake in a good oven until thoroughly cooked. When ready, remove the pie from the oven, and pour in a little more sauce by means of a funnel placed in the hole in the top. Serve hot. Time to bake, 1J to 2 hours. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Note. — Other kinds of fish may be made in the same way. 1480. Fish and Oyster Pie 1 lb. cooked fish. 1 doz. fresh oysters or half a tin of oysters. 1 gill fish stock or oyster liquor. 1 gill milk. 1 oz. flour. 1 oz. butter. Seasoning. 1 cupful of breadcrumbs. Rough-puff pastry. Any nice white fish can be used for making this pie. Break it into flakes or small pieces, and be most careful to remove all bones and any skin. Scald the oysters in their own liquor and strain them, reserving the liquor. Now make a sauce with the butter, flour, milk, and oyster liquor, season it with pepper, salt, and a pinch of nutmeg, and cook it well. Add to it the oysters, which have been broken in three or four pieces with a fork. Take a pie dish that will just hold the fish and sauce, &c. Put into it first some of the fish, then a little sauce, and then some bread-crumbs, and repeat these layers until the dish is full. The contents of the dish should, if possible, be piled rather high in the centre, and the last layer should be bread-crumbs. Allow this to become quite cold, then cover with a thin covering of rough-puff pastry as directed on p. 337, and bake in a good oven until the pastry is nicely browned and thoroughly cooked. Serve hot, garnished with parsley. Note. — Uncooked fish may be used in the same way, but the pie will require a longer time to cook. Time to bake, about £ hour. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. 1481. Fish Tart (Flan de Poisson) 1 lb. cooked fish. I 1 tea-sp.chopped parsley 1 cupful fish sauce. | Seasoning. 2 hard-boiled eggs. i Raised pie-crust. First make the pastry as directed in Recipe 1445, and roll it out rather thin. Take a tart ring 6 or 7 inches in diameter, grease it and place it on a greased baking tin. Now line it with the pastry, making it as smooth as possible inside. Prick the pastry well at the foot, trim round the edges with a pair of scissors, leaving about £ inch of pastry above the edge of the tin and all the way round. Next line the tin with kitchen paper and fill it with rice or haricot beans to prevent the pastry rising during the baking. Cook in a good oven. To Make the Mixture. — Remove all skin and bone from the fish, and heat it in some good fish sauce. Chop the hard-boiled eggs, reserving one of the yolks for decoration. Add them to the fish, with the chopped parsley, and season to taste.