Soles Stewed with Tomatoes. Time—¾ hour.
A pair of soles, 1 small onion, 2 tablespoonfuls oil, or 2 oz. butter, 4 tomatoes, the juice of 1 lemon, pepper, salt, a little cayenne and nutmeg.
Heat the oil or butter in a stew-pan, add chopped onion, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. When the onion is tender, put in the soles, slice the tomatoes on to them, cook for 20 minutes, or ½ hour if the soles are large. Take out the soles carefully, put them on a hot dish, rub the liquor through a sieve, add the lemon-juice, and a very little cayenne and nutmeg, return to the saucepan to get hot, and pour over the soles.
Gurnets and shad may also be cooked in this way, and can be eaten hot or cold.
Brown Stewed Fish.
(Salmon and other rich fish.) Time—1 hour.
For 4 Mackerel or Herrings.
¾ pint porter, 2 Spanish onions, ground ginger, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves, pepper and salt to taste, juice of three lemons, 1 dessertspoonful vinegar, ½ lb. real black treacle.
Stew a crust of bread and the onions in the porter. When tender, take out the crust, and put in the fish with the spice, lemon-juice, vinegar, pepper and salt. When the fish is nearly cooked, add the treacle gradually, cook 3 minutes, and serve cold with slices of lemon between bunches of scraped horse-radish.
Brown Stewed Fish.
(Fresh Water Fish, etc.) Time—40 minutes.
2 to 3 lbs. fish, ½ pint water, 1 onion, 1 tablespoonful oil, 1 tablespoonful vinegar, two-pennyworth ginger-bread, one-pennyworth golden syrup, 1 lemon; pepper and salt to taste.
Peel and cut up the onion, brown it in the oil, put it in the stew-pan with the fish and water, and cook for half an hour. Soak the ginger-bread in the golden syrup and vinegar; when soft, beat it up and add the lemon-juice, pepper and salt. Ten minutes before the fish is ready, pour this sauce on to it, and tilt the stew-pan well backwards and forwards. Serve cold.