Practical household cookery

Prepare eight fillets of sole and place them in a buttered sautée-pan; season with salt, pepper, and a little mace, moisten with a pint of broth, cover with a buttered paper, cook on a quick fire, dish them in a circle, pour over some Venetian sauce (No. 206), and serve. 433. SOLES A LA NORMANDIE. Trim and strip off the black skin of two soles, make a good incision along each side of the bone on the skinned part of each sole, and clean well ; then butter a sautée-pan large enough to hold the two soles, strew it with some very finely chopped onions, previously blanched, lay the soles on these, season with salt and pepper, moisten with half a pint of white wine, and cook them in the oven. Meanwhile have half a pint of fish broth (No. 25) ready made, which must be boiled with a gill of wliite wine. Blanch separately twelve oysters, twelve mussels, and twelve mushroom buttons; fry also twelve smelts and some croutons ready for garnish. When the soles are cooked put them on a silver dish and keep hot ; add the liquor of the soles, as well as that in which the mussels were cooked, to the fish broth, and strain it through a fine cloth into a saucepan. Melt two ounces of butter in another saucepan, add to it two ounces of flour, stir this well over the fire with a wooden spoon, moisten with the liquor, and reduce it by boiling for fifteen minutes; then strain through a tammy cloth and thicken it with the yolks of two eggs. Place the oysters, mussels, and mushrooms decoratively on the soles and round them, pour the sauce over, and put the dish in the oven for five minutes, taking care not to colour the sauce; after which, garnish the border of the dish with the fried smelts and croutons, then serve. Crayfish or prawns as well as truffles can also be added with advantage to the above garnish. 484. SOLE WITH WHITE WINE SAUCE. Prepare two soles as in No. 433, put them in a buttered sautée-pan, season with salt and pepper, moisten with a pint of dry white wine, and set them into the oven to bake for twenty-five minutes. Meantime melt and mix in a stewpan two ounces of very fresh butter with the same quantity of fiour, by stirring it over the fire with a wooden spoon for two or three minutes; season the same with salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg; moisten with half a pint of w^hite broth, stirring the while. When the soles are cooked pour their liquor into the stewpan, stir, and boil gently for one minute; add an ounce of fresh butter; stir the sauce off the fire till the butter is well melted ; dish up the soles, pour the sauce over, and serY& Remarks on Mullet, Red and Grey. There are two distinct species of red mullet, one 'plain red, and the other striped red. There is also another species called grey mullet, but these are very common, and do not possess the same delicacy and flavour as the former. Red mullet should never be drawn; the gills only should be taken out, as it is considered that the liver and trail are the best part of this fish. 435. RED MULLET, MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL. Remove the gills of six red mullet; cut off the fins, scrape, and dip them quickly in water ; wipe, and if large, score them gently across two or three times ; then lay them on a dish and pour over each a tablespoonful of salad-oil ; strew an onion cut in small slices, a few sprigs of parsley, salt and pepper, say three pinches of each, and let them steep so for at least half an hour; then take them out of the dish, one by one, shaking and freeing them from the oil, onions, and parsley, put them on a gridiron over a clear fire for five or six minutes each side, when they must be dressed on a hot dish, taking care not to break them, and serve with a quarter of a pound of maître d'hôtel butter (No. 226) under and over. 4d6. RED MULLET, ITALIENNE.