Cookery for every household

Remove the fillets from a medium-sized pike, and cut them in convenient-sized pieces. Put all the ingredients for the marinade on a plate and soak the pieces of fish in them for an hour. This softens the fish and prevents it tasting so dry as it would otherwise do. Then egg and bread-crumb the fillets, and fry them in boiling fat (see p. 248). When a nice brown colour, drain them well and serve them piled up on a hot dish. Garnish with fried parsley in the centre, and small potato balls (Recipe 542) round. Serve tomato or tartare sauce separately. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. 370. Red Mullet in Cases (Rougets en Caisses) 4 or 5 red mullets. 3 fresh mushrooms. 2 shallots. 1 tea-sp. chopped parsley 1 tomato. A pinch of nutmeg. 1 oz. butter. 1 gill white wine. \ gill fish stock. | oz. flour. Pepper and salt. Lemon juice. Clean the fish carefully, and wipe them dry in a cloth. Put half the butter into a small saucepan, and when melted add to it the shallot finely chopped. Cook a minute or two without allowing it to brown, then add the tomato cut in small pieces, the mushrooms also cut small, parsley and seasoning. Allow this to cook for five minutes. Put the flour into a small basin and mix it smoothly with the fish stock and wine, add this to the mixture in the saucepan, bring to the boil and cook slowly for 10 minutes. Then remove the saucepan from the fire, and add the remainder of the butter. Take some paper cases, large enough to hold one mullet each, and grease them well with salad oil. Put a small spoonful of the mixture at the bottom of each, place a fish on the top, and then more of the mixture. Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice over the top. Arrange the cases on a tin, being careful to see that they stand perfectly flat, and bake in a good oven until the fish is cooked. Garnish with a little parsley or chervil, and serve immediately. Note. — Other mixtures may be used in place of the above, and the fish may be wrapped in a heartshaped piece of paper if the cases are not obtainable. Time to bake, 10 to 12 minutes. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. 371. Red Mullet a la Parisienne (Rougets a la Parisienne) 3 or 4 small mullets. 1 small onion. Seasoning. 1 glass white wine. 2 tomatoes. 1 dessert-sp. salad oil. 1 tea-sp. vinegar. 1 tea-sp. chopped parsley. Lemon. Peel and slice the onion very thinly, and pull it apart into rings. Put these into a small saucepan with the wine, and cook 5 or 6 minutes over the fire. Meanwhile prepare the mullets. Empty them through the gills, trim and wash them. Place them in a fireproof dish and pour the hot wine and water over them. Cover with greased paper, and cook in the oven about 20 minutes without allowing the liquid to boil. When the fish are ready, arrange them neatly on an oval dish, lift out the rounds of onion from the liquid and reduce the latter until only 2 or 3 table-spoonfuls remain. Pour this round the fish and set aside until quite cold.