Fish a la Creme
1 3/4 cups cold flaked fish (cod, haddock, halibut, or cusk) 1 cup White Sauce I Bit of bay leaf Sprig of parsley 1/2 slice onion Salt and pepper 1/2 cup buttered cracker crumbs Scald milk, for the making of White Sauce, with bay leaf, parsley, and onion. Cover the bottom of small buttered platter with one-half of the fish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and pour over one-half the sauce; repeat. Cover with crumbs, and bake in hot oven until crumbs are brown. Fish a la creme, baked in scallop shells, makes an attractive luncheon dish, or may be served for a fish course at dinner.
A gratin of leftover boiled fish, thickened with an infused white sauce and browned under crumbs. The whole thing hinges on the fish already being cooked -- nothing here cooks it through, so the oven only heats and browns.
- White Sauce IThe book's own white sauce recipe, a butter-and-flour roux with a cup of milk; check the book's proportions rather than assuming, as editions differ. Season the sauce before it meets the fish.
- Scalding the milkHeat the milk with the bay leaf, parsley sprig and half slice of onion until it steams and just films at the edge. The recipe does not specify a steeping time or say to strain, though letting it stand off the heat and straining before making the roux gives a cleaner sauce.
- Hot ovenRead this as roughly 400 to 450F. The crumbs should colour in about 10 to 15 minutes.
- CuskA lean North Atlantic relative of cod, once cheap and common and now rarely sold. Any firm white flaked fish works -- cod, haddock, halibut, pollock or hake.
- Cold flaked fishThis is a leftovers dish. About 1 3/4 cups is roughly 8 to 10 ounces of cooked fish, from something over a pound raw. Pick it over for bones and skin, and keep the flakes large.
- Buttered cracker crumbsCrush plain soda or saltine crackers coarsely and toss with melted butter, roughly 2 tablespoons of butter to 1/2 cup crumbs. Dry crumbs will scorch in a hot oven rather than brown.
- "Small buttered platter"An ovenproof serving dish, not a table platter -- a shallow gratin dish or pie plate of about 8 inches is right. Shallow matters: the layers should be thin enough to heat through in the time the crumbs take.
- Scallop shellsDeep scallop shells, or individual ramekins of about 1/2 cup, take 10 minutes or so. Set them on a baking sheet, as they tip easily.
- YieldServes three or four as a light main course, or six as a small first course in shells.