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Coquilles of Fish
Remove the bone and skin of a one-and-a-half-pound piece very fresh halibut. Cut it into half-inch pieces, place in a frying pan with a half gill white wine, half ounce butter, half teaspoon slat and teaspoon paprika; mix a little, cover the fish with a lightly buttered paper, boil for five minutes, then set in oven for fifteen minutes. Remove and keep hot. Mix in a saucepan one and a half tablespoons butter with two and a half tablespoons flour. Moisten with one and a half gills milk and one gill cream. Season with two saltspoons salt and half saltspoon cayenne, strain the fish gravy into this pan, mix well for two minutes, then let slowly boil for ten minutes. Add the fish, carefully mix without breaking, then divide equally into six table shells; dredge two tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese over, divide a half ounce butter on top of the six shells, place on a pastry tin and set in the oven for fifteen minutes. Remove, dress on a hot dish and serve. N. B. Any kind of left-over white fish can be used instead of fresh cooked fish.
A gratin of poached halibut in a cream sauce, baked in shells. Everything hinges on not cooking the fish three times over: it is poached, then finished under cheese, and the second bake should only brown the top.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is 1/2 cup (4 fl oz), so a half gill of wine is 1/4 cup, 1 1/2 gills milk is 3/4 cup, and 1 gill cream is 1/2 cup. A saltspoon is 1/4 teaspoon, making the sauce seasoning about 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne.
- "Half teaspoon slat"A typesetter's error for salt. The teaspoon of paprika is for colour and sweetness rather than heat and is not a mistake.
- Oven temperaturesThe original gives none. Poach the fish at a moderate 350F, and for the final browning use 425F for 8-10 minutes, or slide the shells under the broiler for 2-3 minutes.
- Do not bake the fish twice for 15 minutesHalf-inch cubes of halibut are cooked through in five minutes of gentle poaching, and the second 15-minute bake need only glaze the top. Held that long in the oven twice the fish turns dry and chalky. Poach briefly, then brown fast.
- The buttered paperA cartouche: parchment cut to the diameter of the pan, buttered on the underside, laid directly on the fish. It holds in steam without letting the fish boil hard, which would break the pieces apart.
- Table shellsReal scallop shells or the ceramic coquille dishes sold for them. Shallow gratin dishes or 4-6 oz ramekins work; you need six of roughly 3/4 cup capacity.
- The sauce1 1/2 tablespoons butter to 2 1/2 tablespoons flour is a stiff roux, thickening 1 1/4 cups of dairy plus the strained poaching liquid. Ten minutes of slow simmering is not padding: it cooks out the raw flour taste and is what keeps the sauce from thinning as the fish releases moisture in the oven.
- CheeseTwo tablespoons of Parmesan across six shells is a light dusting. Grate it finely so it melts and browns rather than sitting in flecks.
- YieldSix shells, a first course or a light lunch with bread. The note at the end is practical advice: cold poached cod, haddock or leftover baked halibut can replace the fresh fish, in which case skip the poaching and thin the sauce with a little extra milk in place of the fish gravy.
Baking a creamed mixture in a scallop shell is a French restaurant convention that ran through the whole era of this book: the shell was cheap, reusable, arrived at table hot, and gave a portion of leftover fish the dignity of a named dish. Coquille simply means shell, and the family of preparations is generally traced to coquilles Saint-Jacques, named, by tradition, for the scallop shell carried by pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, though the term came to be applied to almost anything gratinated in a shell, fish, chicken, sweetbreads or mushrooms. The recipe's closing note suggests professional rather than domestic cooking: a hotel kitchen with poached fish left from lunch service needed a way to sell it again at supper, and the Parmesan-and-butter glaze was it. Halibut, then landed in great quantity off New England and the Pacific Northwest, holds its shape in cubes better than cod.