French dishes for American tables

136. Scallops of White-Fish a la Provencale. Cut a white-fish of four pounds into round pieces, or in the shape of an egg, and about three inches in length ; put them in a dish with a clove of garlic, a little thyme, three bay-leaves, two roots of parsley, an onion cut in thin slices, salt and pepper, and moisten them with a sherry-glass of oil : then peel three white onions, which cut in slices, blanch them in boiling water, with a little salt ; drain them and put them in a frying-pan on the fire, with a wineglass of oil, which heat thoroughly, and, when beginning to color slightly, drain off the oil, and moisten with half a bottle of white wine. Then drain your fish, which put in the saucepan with your onions. fish. Simmer gently for thirty minutes, drain, and in the liquor in which your fish was cooked put a tablespoonful of tomato sauce, reduce gently about one third, pour over your fish, and serve. 137. Eels en Matelote. Clean an eel, a pike, and a perch; cut them in slices ; place them in a saucepan with a clove of garlic, two bay-leaves, two branches of thyme, three cloves, a little basil, and a few branches of parsley ; add enough red wine to cover your fish. Put them on a very gentle fire, and, when beginning to boil, add a wineglass of brandy. Shake gently, so as not to break your fish, and, after boiling fifteen minutes, drain off your fish, and keep them hot. Put on a table half an ounce of flour and an ounce of butter ; mix well together with the blade of a knife, and add to the liquid in which your fish was boiled. Peel and press through a sieve twenty small white onions, which put in a frying-pan, with a little butter, on a very gentle fire; add them, with a dozen mushrooms, to your fish, which heat up again. Take the ingredients in which your fish was first cooked, and place them in a dish, your fish on top. Garnish with some boiled crawfish, and some pieces of bread cut in triangles, and fried in butter. 138. Red Snapper a la Chambord. Take a red snapper, about four pounds in weight. Remove the scales, and on one side of the fish cut a square in the skin, which take out, and in the flesh insert two dozen pieces of truffles, cut in squares, and pointed at one end. Over this tie a thin piece of larding pork. Put your fish in a fish-kettle, surround it with a sliced carrot and onion, three cloves of garlic, six bay-leaves, six cloves, six branches of thyme, four parsley-roots, and cover the fish with half a bottle of white wine and a quart of consomme (stock, Art. i) ; put it on the fire until boiling, and then send it to a gentle oven to cook slowly for an hour, basting it often with its own liquor, on the side studded with truffles. Take half a pint of Spanish sauce (Art. 80), to which add two wineglasses of the liquid in which your fish was cooked, put your sauce on the fire to boil, skim off the grease, and strain ; then put it back again on the fire for a few moments, adding a dozen mushrooms, a dozen quenelles (Art. n), as many truffles cut in quarters, a dozen crawfish, and the same of chicken's kidneys which you have previously blanched in hot water, with a little salt, for ten minutes. Lay your fish on a dish, pour your sauce around it, and serve.