Recipies: Fish & Seafood

Seaweed:

Laver Cakes

Take some boiled laver and dress it with butter and cream and season well. Mix in enough oatmeal to enable you to form it into cakes the size of smallish cakes. Toss in oatmeal and fry in bacon fat.

Carragheen Mould

Soak ½ cup dried carragheen in water for 10 minutes, drain it, simmer for 15 minutes in milk with a flavouring of elderflowers (2 teaspoons), nutmeg or sweet spice. Strain it into a basin or mould, sweeten with honey or sugar and leave to set.
A fruit jelly may be made by using water instead of milk and adding the juice of stewed fruit.

Stewed Dulse.

Irish country recipe from Portaferry
Wash freshly gathered dulse to remove the sand and grit. Put it in a saucepan with milk, butter, salt and pepper and stew until tender. This can take from 3-4 hours. Use it as a supper dish with oatcakes or brown bread.

Fish

Recipes serve four.

Pickled herring

Make sure you get nice, fat, very fresh fish, and ask the fishmonger to do the filleting. Once pickled, you won't have to worry about light lunches or easy suppers until it's time to do another batch.

Stage 1: Salting

500g salt
1kg herring fillets

Salt the herrings overnight, or for at least eight hours, to draw out any liquid and tauten the texture. Judging the time is quite tricky, but it is better to undersalt them. Wash off the salt very thoroughly.

Stage 2: Pickling

2 large onions, finely chopped
250g caster sugar
150ml white-wine vinegar
1 dssp pickling spices
1 Up peppercorns
2 bayleaves

Put all the ingredients in a non-reactive pan, and bring to the boil. Simmer for two to three minutes, then set aside to cool. Place the salted herring in a shallow container, then pour the marinade over. Refrigerate for at least five days before eating. They will keep for up to a month.

Stage 3: Eating

250g crisp apples, peeled and sliced thin
150ml single cream
1 tbsp Dijon mustard

You can eat the herrings on a slice of rye bread or crispbread, and very lovely they are, too. Or cut them up into bite-sized chunks, and mix with apple, cream and mustard. Or use your imagination.

Cooking Perch

Cook the perch in salted water, made slightly acid with lemon juice. Drain it, skin and put into the court bouillon to make sure that it is quite clean. Drain again, and arrange on a serving dish. Accompany either with a sauce made of melted butter flavoured with lemon juice and chopped parsley or with a hollandaise or bearnaise sauce.

Ecrevisses a la Nage

Make fish stock or court bouillon. Wash the crayfish, drain well and put into the court bouillon. Simmer for 12 minutes. Remove the fish and pile in the middle of a dish and strain the court bouillon over them.

Trout du Cave

Flour the trout and fry in butter over a moderate heat, allowing 5 minutes a side. Put in a serving dish and keep warm. Cook 75g (3oz) ceps or other mushrooms in the juices in the pan with ½ clove crushed garlic. Season well. Add 2 tablespoons thick cream, salt and pepper. Stir all together, correct the seasoning and pour over the trout. Serve.

Salmon

To cook, salmon may be baked or boiled. To bake, wrap in oiled foil with any wine or herbs of your preference and put in a cool oven, 135-150 °C (275-300°F) gas mark 1-2, allowing 1 hour for a piece or a whole fish up to 2.25kg (5lb) and 12 minutes for every 450g (1lb) after that.

To boil a salmon which is to be eaten cold, cover it with cold water, bring to the boil, allow it to simmer for 3 minutes then leave to cool in the water.

For a salmon to be eaten hot, put the fish in cold water, bring to the boil and allow 5 minutes' simmering time per 450g (1 lb) up to 2.25kg (5lb), 4 minutes for 2.5-3.5kg (6-8lb), and 50-60 minutes in total for 3.5-4.5kg (8-10lb) of fish. Serve with a mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce.

Mayonnaise

2 large egg yolks to 275ml (½pt) olive oil, 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice or wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Put yolks, salt and pepper in a bowl and whip together. Drip in the olive oil stirring well all the time.

As the mayonnaise begins to thicken speed up the rate at which you add the oil. Finally mix in the lemon juice and adjust the seasoning. (If it curdles, break a fresh yolk into a clean bowl and slowly add the curdled mixture to it.)

Stuffed Bream

Chop 2-3 slices lean smoked bacon with 1 clove of garlic and a head of fennel. Melt enough oil to cover the base of a frying pan, put in the chopped mixture and cook until the fennel softens.

Add about 50-75g (2-3oz) breadcrumbs and a beaten egg. Stuff the fish with this, then grill, basting with some rosemary and lemon juice.

Baked Bream

Lay chopped shallots and breadcrumbs in the bottom of an oven dish and place the bream on top. Cover with more shallots and breadcrumbs, pour on some white wine and dot with butter. Bake for 25 minutes.

Mourette de Carpe

Simmer together 100g (4oz) sliced mushrooms, 1 medium onion chopped, 75g (3oz) currants, 3 large cloves garlic, a bouquet garni and 1 bottle red Burgundy for 2 hour in an uncovered pan until the wine has reduced by one third.

Season. Cut the cleaned carp into pieces. Add to the pan, cover and simmer for another 2 hour or until the fish is cooked. Mash together 50g (2oz) butter, 1 tablespoon flour and use it to thicken the sauce. Serve hot.

Stewed Pike

Clean and scale the pike discarding the roe with the rest of the innards. Chop together 6 shallots, 1 onion and some parsley. Butter an oven dish and lay the vegetables in the bottom and place the pike on top. Sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper, and pour on enough stock and white wine, half and half, to cover it. Bake in a fairly hot oven, 90°C (375 °F) gas mark 5, for about 30 minutes or until cooked.

Anguille b la Romanaise

Cut the eel in pieces 5cm (2in) long, and wrap each piece up in a very thin slice of raw lemon without the rind and a thin rasher of streaky bacon. Tie up, and cook gently in butter, in a stewpan, adding 2 cloves of garlic.

As soon as they are cooked, take out the pieces, untie them, and arrange them on a dish. Remove the garlic, swill the stewpan with a glass of dry white wine, let it reduce, and thicken it with butter. Cover the pieces of eel with it, and sprinkle them with chopped parsley.

Marinaded Dab

Remove head, fins and tail. Wipe fish. Make a vinaigrette dressing from 2 parts oil to 1 part wine vinegar or lemon juice, 1 sliced onion, 1 chopped clove of garlic, 1 bayleaf, 1 teaspoon chopped chives, salt and pepper. Pour into a dish and lay the dabs on top. Leave for 2 hours turning frequently. After draining, grill, basting with the strained marinade mixture. Serve with parsley butter.

Les Filets de Merlian Vallée d'Auge

'Cook 1 Ooz [250g] chopped onion gently in 5 tablespoons oil until soft and golden. Season and put in a large gratin dish. Lay 6 boned whiting on top and season well. Pour ½ pt [275m1] dry cider over them and sprinkle 2oz [50g] grated gruyere cheese on top. Cook in an oven [gas mark 4-5] [180-190°C, 350-375°F] for about 20 minutes or until the fish are cooked.'

Flounder Au Gratin

Wipe prepared fish well. Chop together parsley, chervil, 1-2 shallots, onion or chives and a few mushrooms. Butter an oven dish and put 2 thirds of the herb mixture in the bottom, add ½ cup water or fish stock and ½ cup white wine, salt and pepper. Then place in the fish and sprinkle the remaining third of the herbs on top with a covering of brown breadcrumbs. Dot with butter, add a little lemon juice and cook in a moderate oven for 20-30 minutes, basting occasionally. Brown surface under grill if required and serve.

Baked Mackerel

Make a sauce by cooking a large, chopped onion gently in 2 tablespoons oil, then stir in 1 tablespoon flour and 225ml (8oz) dry white wine and 225ml (8oz) water. Add a bouquet garni and, when the sauce is smooth and moderately thick, 2 heaped tablespoons French mustard and seasoning. Pour it over some cleaned mackerel placed head to tail in a buttered dish and bake in a fairly hot oven, 205° C (400° F) gas mark 6, for 20 minutes or until the fish is cooked.

Molluscs

Moules Marinieres

Scrape and brush the shells of the mussels until clean. For 2l (3½pt) mussels put in a pan 1 chopped medium-sized onion, 1 finely chopped shallot, some parsley stalks, thyme, bayleaf, freshly ground pepper and 8 tablespoons white wine. Add the mussels and cover tightly. Cook over a fast heat and at the end of 2 minutes shake the mussels.

Do this 2-3 times more and at the end of 6 minutes the mussels should be cooked. Remove the top shell from each mussel and arrange them in a deep, heated dish and keep warm. Boil up the remaining liquor, add some butter and chopped parsley, and strain over the mussels.

There are endless variations on this theme. Some add garlic to the mixture and others add some spoonfuls of hollandaise sauce to the strained mussel liquor instead of butter and then reheat without boiling. Still another variation is to cover them with a cheese sauce made with the liquor to which chives have been added; the dish is then browned under the grill just before serving.

Potted Shrimps

'Melt 3 or 4oz [75-100g] butter in a saucepan, and into it cast a pint [550ml] of picked shrimps, a blade of mace powdered, cayenne and, if liked, some grated nutmeg. Heat them up slowly, but do not let them boil. Pour them into little pots, and when they are cold, cover with melted butter. One experiment will tell you just how much pepper and spice to use.' Pottery, A. Potter, Wine and Food Society, 1946.

Devilled Oysters

Poach several dozen oysters in their own liquor, drain them, and remove their beards. With the oyster liquor and some fresh cream make a bechamel sauce; season it with salt, grated nutmeg and a pinch of paprika pepper. Mix the oysters with this sauce, and garnish the concave shells with the mixture. Sprinkle with fried breadcrumbs, arrange the shells on a baking sheet, and put them in the oven for a few minutes before serving them. Be careful not to let them boil.

Cockle Pie

Butter a deep pie-dish. Boil the cockles, remove the meat and put in a little milk. Strain the liquor in which they were boiled and use to make a white sauce with butter, flour, a spoonful of anchovy essence and a shake of nutmeg. Sprinkle brown breadcrumbs into the pie-dish, cover with dabs of butter, then put in a layer of cockles.

Pour over some of the white sauce, and add another layer of crumbs, butter and cockles. Continue in this way until the dish is full. Cover with a layer of mashed potato and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with slices of lemon.