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Bonito, Polonaise
Trim off the fins, remove the head and split in two through the back, then remove the spinal bone from a three-pound fresh bonito. Season with a half teaspoon each salt and pepper, evenly spread an anchovy butter over the fish, then roll in bread crumbs. Heat a tablespoon melted butter in a frying pan, add the bonito and gently fry for ten minutes on each side, dress on a dish, squeeze juice of half a lemon and sprinkle half teaspoon chopped parsley over. Place half an ounce of butter in the pan and toss on the fire till brown, then pour over the fish and serve.
A whole small bonito, boned and pan-fried in crumbs, finished with browned butter. The method is sound; the timings belong to a heavier, denser fish than most cooks will bring home.
- The hinge: don't overcook itTen minutes a side will turn bonito dry and chalky. Two boned halves of a three-pound fish run about an inch at the thickest point and need roughly four to five minutes on the first side and two to three on the second, to an internal 125-130F for a moist centre.
- What bonito is hereThe book means true bonito or a small tuna of the mackerel family — dark, oily, firm-fleshed. Skipjack, little tunny or Atlantic bonito all behave the same way. If you can only get one, a small albacore loin or a mackerel fillet takes the same treatment.
- Trim the bloodlineBonito carries a dark red-brown strip of muscle along the lateral line that turns strong and metallic when cooked. The recipe says nothing about it; cut it away yourself before crumbing.
- Anchovy butterMash two or three oil-packed anchovy fillets into four tablespoons of softened butter with a squeeze of lemon; it should be spreadable but not melting when it goes on the fish.
- Crumbs without eggThere is no egg wash here — the anchovy butter is the glue. Use dry fine crumbs, press them on firmly, and let the fish sit ten minutes in the refrigerator so the butter sets and the coating stays put in the pan.
- One tablespoon of butter is not enoughA tablespoon will burn under a crumbed three-pound fish. Use two or three tablespoons of butter with a spoonful of neutral oil, which raises the smoke point and keeps the crumbs from blackening.
- "Toss on the fire till brown"This is beurre noisette: half an ounce (one tablespoon) of fresh butter swirled in a clean or wiped-out pan until the milk solids turn hazelnut brown and it smells nutty. Thirty to sixty seconds over moderate heat, then off and straight over the fish, or it goes bitter.
- YieldA three-pound whole fish gives about a pound and a half of trimmed flesh — two generous or three modest servings.
Polonaise in classical French service means "in the Polish style" and normally signals a finish of browned butter poured over toasted breadcrumbs, most familiar on asparagus or cauliflower and often with sieved hard-boiled egg. Here the crumbs have migrated into the coating and only the brown butter is poured at the table — the sort of loose adaptation common in late-nineteenth-century restaurant compendia, where national labels marked a garnish or a finish rather than any real provenance. Bonito was landed on both the Mediterranean and the American Atlantic coasts and generally treated as a cheaper relation of tuna — oily enough to fry without drying if handled quickly, and strong enough in flavour to stand up to anchovy butter, which would overwhelm a sole.