Choice cookery

Skin the soles and fillet them by slipping a knife down the back from the head to the tail, then lift the fillets carefully from the bones, lay them on a board, and sprinkle on both sides with salt, pepper, and lemon juice ; fold in half, lay in a buttered tin, cover with buttered paper, and bake 15 to 20 minutes. Put the bones, with the parsley, mace, onion, celery, and bay leaf (broken) into a pan with £ pint of water or stock, and simmer slowly fifteen minutes. Melt the butter in another pan, stir in flour, seasonings, and lemon juice; strain the stock from the bones to the flour, add cream, and boil three minutes. Lift the fish out of the tin to drain, brush over with the sauce, then sprinkle with finely minced parsley and lobster coral ; dish round a dish, allowing each fillet to rest against the other, strain round the sauce, and serve. No. 28. FILETS DE SOLE A LA PARMESAN. 2 medium soles £ teaspoonful anchovy essence 1 oz. flour 1 oz. butter 1 bay leaf 1 blade of mace Lemon juice 2 oz. grated Parmesan cheese ster or shrimps Salt and pepper \ pint milk 1 tablespoonful cream ^ of a small onion Yolks of 2 eggs 1 tablespoonful of minced lob- Skin and fillet the soles ; wash the bones and skin, put into a saucepan with the milk, onion, mace, bay leaf, salt and pepper ; simmer slowly half-an-hour ; wash and dry the fillets, lay them the skin side uppermost, sprinkle each with salt, pepper, and lemon juice ; mix the minced lobster with 1 tablespoonful of the cheese, 2 yolks, salt, pepper, and cayenne ; lay a little of this mixture on one half of the fillets, fold over the other half, put into a wellbuttered baking tin, cover with buttered paper, and bake 20 minutes ; lift out on to a towel to drain ; add any liquid in the baking tin to the bones ; put the butter into a pan, and when melted add the flour, stir until smooth, then add the milk from the bones, &c. ; boil three minutes, stir in the cream, anchovy, and a few drops of lemon juice. Dish the fillets round a dish, strain over the sauce (which should be about the consistency of good thick cream), taking care to coat each fillet; sprinkle every other fillet with Parmesan, and brown under gas burner or in front of fire ; then sprinkle the fillets between the cheese with minced parsley or lobster coral. o No. 29. SHRIMP WITH MAYONNAISE. \ pint picked shrimps 2 tablespoonfuls mayonnaise sauce (page 118) A few grains cayenne \ pint aspic jelly (page 89) A good bunch watercress A little lobster coral and minced parsley Some thin rounds of bread & butter, about 3 inches long and 1£ inches wide Put the shrimps into a basin and add to them the mayonnaise, one tablespoonful of liquid aspic, and a little cayenne; mix together, and pile in the centre of each round of bread and butter, sprinkle alternately with coral and chopped parsley. Arrange round the edge of a dish the aspic (chopped), then the pieces of bread with shrimps resting one on the other, fill the centre with watercress or any other green, and serve. No. 30. SMELTS (Fried).