MORE FISH RECIPES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 176, 6 November 1942, Page 11

MORE FISH RECIPES

Curried Crayfish Slice an onion very thinly, and place in a saucepan with about 2 tablespoons of butter. When nicely cooked, but not browned, add a tablespoon of curry powder, or a little more, according to taste. Then add sufficient milk (or milk and water) to make the desired quantity of sauce, and thicken with cornflour, which has been mixed to a smooth paste with a little more milk. Add pepper and salt and sugar to taste. and simmer till cooked and smooth. Then put in the chopped-up crayfish, and let it heat through. Serve with or without boiled rice. The rice should be sprinkled into fast-boiling salted water, and kept boiling hard for 20 minutes. Strain through a colander and put under the hot or cold tap for a minute or two, to wash off all the starch. Then dry the rice in a steamer or in a warm oven, turning it over and over, so that it may become nicely dry with all the grains separate. Crayfish Sauce This can be made with a small crayfish, or with the paste left over when one or two crayfish have been served plain, with green salad. It is most useful to serve with a dish of stewed or boiled fish of a cheaper kind, giving it a luxury air. Or it can be baked in little dishes sprinkled with breadcrumbs, with little dabs of butter placed here and there, and called Scalloped Crayfish; or in pastry-lined patty cases as Savoury Patties. To make it, just prepare the usual good white sauce-(what a standby white sauce is, for serving up "leftovers" of poultry, or vegetables, or fish, and varied with flavourings of celery, chives, onion juice, parsley, etc.)--adding a flavouring of nutmeg or mace; and then put in the cut-up crayfish meat, being careful not to let it boil, but only heat through. Smoked Fish Very useful to country folk, who make only a weekly visit to town. They can take home fresh fish to be eaten at once, and smoked fish which will keep in a cold place for a couple of days, thus helping to vary the menu during the week, Cut off tail and_fins and soak in warm water for half an hour or so, to make it less salty. Then wipe dry, and pull off the tough outside skin. To Grill-Spread with softened butter and grill under gas or electric grill which is pre-heated. Turn once, and serve hot, with more butter. To Poach-Put in frying pan or baking dish and just cover with milk and water. Simmer very gently about 15 minutes. Take up and keep very hot in the oven while you thicken the milk and water with cornflour, adding plenty of chopped parsley, and a good slice of butter. Pour this rich sauce over the fish. With Eggs.-Poach a sufficient number of eggs in the milk and water, instead of making sauce with it, and place an egg on each portion of smoked fish.

Scalloped.-Cook the smoked fish in milk and water, and make the liquid into a good white sauce, as described above. Then butter a piedish, put in a layer of breadcrumbs, then a layer of the cooked fish flaked up nicely. Cover with a layer of white sauce, and then repeat the three layers till the dish is full, finishing with breadcrumbs and topping with knobs of butter. Just heat it through in the oven, browning it nicely. Roe The roe consists of the eggs of the fish, and is a good nourishing food, rich in iodine. It is always first simmered for about 10 minutes in slightly salted water with a dash of vinegar; and may then be-(1) Fried. Wipe dry after simmering, cut into thick slices, dip in seasoned flour, then into beaten egg, and lastly into breadcrumbs, Fry in fairly deep fat until a pretty brown. Very nice with tomato sauce made by frying a sliced onion in a little dripping for a few minutes (without browning) and then adding a couple of sliced tomatoes-pre- : served ones will do-and some water. Simmer a little, and then push through a strainer and return to saucepan, thickening with flour or cornflour. (2) Scalloped Roe.-After simmering for ten minutes as described above, chop into small pieces, and add it to a good white sauce. Chopped parsley is good with it. Put into greased piedish lined with breadcrumbs, and cover with a good layer of breadcrumbs on top, dotted with knobs of butter. Brown in the oven. (3) In Sauce.-Roe is also quite nice just heated in the white sauce, and eaten with toast or mashed potatoes,