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Cod a la Bechamel
Remove the fish from the bones and break into small pieces. Put a cupful of nicely seasoned white stock and a cupful of fresh milk into a saucepan. Thicken with a little butter rubbed into a little flour, add the fish, and let it remain until it becomes thoroughly heated, but do not allow the sauce to boil. Turn the fish and sauce out on a hot platter, and serve with a border of mashed potato. It takes about twenty minutes to prepare this dish.
A late-Victorian way of using up cooked fish, dressed with a light cream sauce and piped potato. The whole thing hangs on gentle heat: this is a reheating job, not a cooking one.
- Start with cooked fishThe instruction to remove the fish from the bones assumes yesterday's boiled or baked cod. Poach 1 to 1 1/4 lb of fillet gently, or use leftovers; raw fish added to the sauce will shed liquid and thin it.
- Do not let the sauce boilThis is the hinge. Once the milk-and-stock sauce boils with flaked fish in it, the flakes break down to threads and the sauce can separate. Hold it just below a simmer for the three or four minutes the fish needs to warm through.
- White stockA pale stock made from veal or chicken bones without browning. The recipe asks for it 'nicely seasoned', so season it rather than leaving it plain. A mild chicken stock stands in; fish stock also suits the dish.
- Butter rubbed into flourThis is beurre manie, roughly equal weights of soft butter and flour worked to a paste, whisked into the hot liquid in small pieces. About 1 1/2 tablespoons of each will lightly bind two cupfuls.
- CupfulTake it as 8 fl oz. Two cups of liquid to a pound of fish gives a sauce that coats rather than floods; reduce the liquid a little first if you want it thicker.
- SeasoningThe original leans on the stock for flavour. Salt, white pepper, a scrape of nutmeg and a squeeze of lemon off the heat are all in period and all wanted, since cod and milk are both mild.
- The potato borderStiff mashed potato piped or spooned around the rim of a hot platter, browned briefly under a hot grill if you like. It exists to hold the sauce in, so keep the mash firm rather than loose.
- YieldServes three to four as a light main course with the potato, or six as part of a larger meal.