[127]. Chicken Halibut aux Fines Herbes. Chop a little parsley, six mushrooms, and a shallot; add to them a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and place all together in a saucepan on the fire for five minutes, with half a pint of white wine. Then put these ingredients on a dish, and place on top of them four pounds of chicken halibut. Send to a moderate oven for about thirty minutes, taking care from time to time to pour with a spoon some of the liquid in the dish over your fish. Put half a pint of Spanish sauce ([Art. 80]) in another saucepan on the fire, reduce your sauce for about seven or eight minutes, adding the juice of a lemon, and serve it around your fish.
[128]. Eels à la Tartare. Broil your eels on a gridiron. When the skin detaches itself on one side, turn them on the other. When done, with a napkin take off all the skin, cut the eels in pieces three inches long, remove the insides, and put the eels in a saucepan with a little salt, pepper, six cloves, six pepper-corns, two parsley-roots, a little thyme, four bay-leaves, and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Add enough water to cover your eels, and, after boiling fifteen minutes, take them off the fire, let them cool in the liquid in which they were cooked, and then wipe them dry with a cloth. Break in a bowl two eggs, which mix thoroughly with half an ounce of melted butter; pour this over your fish, and sprinkle lightly with bread-crumbs. Broil them on a very gentle fire. When they are a nice brown, serve them with a sauce Tartare ([Art. 114]).
[129]. King-Fish, Sherry Sauce. Clean four medium-sized king-fish, split them in two, and broil them on a gentle fire. Put half a pint of Spanish sauce ([Art. 80]) in a saucepan, add a wineglass of sherry, boil fifteen minutes, pour it around your fish, and serve.
[130]. Fillet of Shad, with Purée of Sorrel. After cleaning your shad, cut it in equal pieces, leaving the skin underneath. Put them on a plate, and sprinkle a little salt on them, add the juice of a lemon, and a few branches of parsley. A few moments before they are required to be served put them in a saucepan on a gentle fire for fifteen minutes, with a glass of white wine and an ounce of butter. Pick and clean a quart of sorrel, which blanch in boiling water, drain, and press it through a sieve. Put an ounce of butter in a saucepan with half an ounce of flour, a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and, when beginning to color slightly, add your purée of sorrel and half a glass of cream. Simmer gently ten minutes, when add the yolks of two eggs which you have mixed in a little milk. Boil five minutes longer, pour over your fish, and serve.
[131]. Broiled Shad à la Maître d'Hôtel. Clean a shad, without removing the skin, split it in two, and put the roes on a buttered pan, which send to the oven until brown. Then broil the shad, and when done put it on a dish together with the roes. Melt an ounce of butter, in which put a little salt and pepper, a little chopped parsley, and the juice of a lemon. Mix well together, pour over your shad, and serve. Porgies, mackerel, and other broiling fish, may be served in the same manner.
[132]. Long Island Brook-Trout. Clean and wash a trout of about four pounds, and put it in a fish-kettle with four ounces of salt. When beginning to boil remove your fish-kettle to the back of the range for twenty-five minutes. Blanch four roes of shad in a little boiling water and a little salt, drain, and cut them in small pieces, as also a dozen mushrooms. Add these, with the juice of a lemon, to a pint of sauce Allemande ([Art. 81]), and boil ten minutes. Serve the fish garnished with sprigs of parsley, and the sauce in a separate dish.
[133]. Trout à la Génevoise. Clean four little trout, cut off the gills, and put your fish in an earthen pot for four hours, with a little thyme, four bay-leaves, two shallots cut in pieces, five branches of parsley, a little pepper and salt, and the juice of two lemons, after which drain, and place them in a saucepan on the fire, with a chopped onion, a clove of garlic, and a little nutmeg. Add enough red wine to cover your fish, and boil gently for twenty minutes. Take half a pint of Spanish sauce ([Art. 80]), boil for about an hour with one half of the liquid in which the foregoing ingredients were boiled. Chop four mushrooms and truffles, a little parsley, and add to your sauce. Put your fish on a dish, garnish with parsley, and serve with your sauce on a separate dish.
[134]. Scallops of Trout. Prepare as the foregoing a medium-sized trout, which cut in round pieces, or in the shape of an egg, and about three inches in length, and put into a saucepan in which you have previously melted two ounces of butter; add a little salt, white pepper, the juice of a lemon; and when they are done on one side, turn them on the other; mash some potatoes, and with them form a border on a plate, which may go to the oven. Moisten your potatoes lightly with some melted butter, and send them to the oven to brown. When done, arrange your scallops of fish in the middle of the potatoes, and pour over all a sauce béchamel ([Art. 83]).
[135]. Halibut, Sauce Suprême. Take four pounds of halibut, which cut in square pieces; soak them for an hour in four wineglasses of madeira (or sherry); turn them over from time to time, first on one side and then on the other. Just before serving, put them into a saucepan, in which you have melted two ounces of butter; add a little salt and pepper, put them on the fire for a few moments, and then send to the oven for twenty minutes. Arrange your fish on a dish, and pour over them a sauce suprême ([Art. 99]).