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Baked Bluefish, Paysanne
Neatly trim a three-pound piece of fresh bluefish. Place on a plate half an ounce melted butter, six finely chopped shallots, one chopped bean garlic, one teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, one teaspoon chopped chives and saltspoon thyme. Mix the whole well together and carefully rub the bluefish all over with it. Place the fish on the plate and let stand for fifteen minutes. Finely slice two medium sound onions, place them in a baking dish with half an ounce butter, lay the fish on top and spread all the butter over the fish. Season with half teaspoon salt and half teaspoon paprika, arrange two peeled, red, raw tomatoes around the fish, set in the oven to bake for forty-five minutes, remove and serve in the same dish.
A straightforward baked fish with an herb-and-garlic rub, but the original assumes you know your oven and gives a baking time that will overcook the fish badly.
- Cut the timeForty-five minutes is likely more than a three-pound piece of bluefish needs, though with no oven temperature given the original time is hard to judge. Bake until the thickest part reaches about 145F and the flesh flakes from the bone, checking from about 30 minutes for a thick centre cut, sooner for a tail piece.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is given. A moderate oven of 375F suits this dish; the onions underneath want long enough to soften, so slice them thinly and dot them well with the butter.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is about a quarter teaspoon. Use that much dried thyme, or a full teaspoon of chopped fresh leaves.
- "One chopped bean garlic"A bean of garlic means one clove. The phrasing most likely renders the French gousse (a pod, as of beans or peas), as in gousse d'ail.
- Butter quantitiesHalf an ounce is one tablespoon, used twice: once in the rub, once in the baking dish. It is a thin film by modern standards, so an extra tablespoon over the onions is no betrayal.
- Buying bluefishBluefish is oily and turns strong and fishy within a day or two. Buy it the day you cook it and look for firm, bright flesh; mackerel or Spanish mackerel behaves much the same way if bluefish is not to be had.
- The tomatoesPeel them by scoring and dropping into boiling water for fifteen seconds. Halve or thickly slice them rather than leaving them whole, or they will still be raw when the fish is done.
- YieldThree pounds of fish on the bone serves four generously. Serve in the baking dish as directed, spooning the onion and pan juices over each portion.
Paysanne means "country style" or "peasant style," and in French kitchen shorthand it signals a dish built on a homely bed of vegetables rather than a made sauce: onions beneath, tomatoes around, butter and herbs over the top. What marks this as an American book is the fish itself. Bluefish is an Atlantic species better known in American waters than in the French repertoire, though the French know it as tassergal, and a volume calling itself The International Cook Book existed precisely to record the meeting of a classical treatment with a local fish. The herb mixture rubbed on and left to stand a quarter of an hour gives the seasoning time to take hold before the fish ever meets the heat, and it is the reason the dish tastes of more than baked fish and onions.