EAT MORE FISH

New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 989, 1 August 1958, Page 22

EAT MORE FISH

ISH is generally considéred fairly expensive for family meals, but it is so rich in food value that we should think about using it more often and of how to cook it so that it makes reasonably priced méals. Get away from the everlasting meal of plain boiled fish with parsley sauce, or fried fish, and remember that the food value of the cheaper kinds is practically the same as that of the most expensive. Fish must be cooked at a moderate heat and is rendered tough and indigestible by hard boiling. It is grand protein food, as well as being rich in minerals like phosphorus, in gelatine (another protein) and iodine. Much of the food value of fish, also, is contained in the bones and skins and heads. These are rich in gelatine and should be boiled, the liquor strained and used in fish soup (with milk) or in making sauce to use in a casserole dish. Don’t forget the good old idea of wrapping your fish in buttered cooking paper for baking or steaming, thus saving the juices which are poured over the fish when serving.

Fish Roe

| This consists of the eggs of the fish and is valuable food. Groper (or ~Hapuka) roe is generally available, by -the pound, in most fish shops. Scalloped-Drain the roe after gently simmering for 10 minutes in salted water with a dash of vinegar. Cut into small pieces and heat through in a good rich white sauce, seasoned with parsley. Serve with fingers of toast or with mashed potatoes. Or pour the sauce and roe into a buttered oven-dish, cover with breadcrumbs, dot with plenty of knobs of butter and brown nicely in the oven. Fried-After simmering, drain roe and cut into thick slices. Dip these into beaten egg which has been seasoned with pepper and salt, then coat well with browned crisp breadcrumbs and fry in deep fat until a delicate brown. Very nice served with tomato puree or tomato sauce. Kromeskies-After the roes have been simmering as above, cut them in suitable slices, wrap -a trasher of bacon around each piece, fastening with a tiny skewer. Dip into batter and fry in boiling fat. Remove skewer and serve on slices of fried bread.

Fish A La Rangitiki

It was the chef from the Rangitiki who showed us this delicious way of serving fish. Have fillets of terakihi or any fish. Slice a quantity of onions, separating slices into rings with the fingers. Dry the fillets of fish, dip in seasoned flour. Shake off surplus flour, put fish into pan containing 1 inch of hot smoking fat and cook evenly both sides. In saucepan have deep smoking fat. Dip the onion rings first in milk, then flour. Shake off surplus flour, drop into smoking fat in saucepan. Will be cooked in'3 to 4 minutes. Remove with

perforated spoon and drain on paper.

Put cooked fish on dish, press a thin slice of skinned tomato on each and

put into hot oven for a few minutes to heat tomato through. Then on the serving dish, pile nicely browned onion rings in the centre; atound them lay fillets of fish with tomato slices. Have réady thin lemon slices cut in half. Dip the lemon slices in finely chopped parsley, coating them well. Arrange around the outside of the dish.

Savoury Fish Pie

Steam some fish fillets and flake carefully. Boil some parsnips and mash them very smooth with butter, ‘pepper and top-milk. Now line a piedish or casserole half way down with flaky pastry (no pastry at the bottom of dish). At bottom put a layer of parsnip, then a layer of flaked fish. Repeat these till the dish is full. For variety you can put in a little grated onion, if liked. Have the top layer of parsley sauce. Put tiny dabs of butter here and there, and sprinkle with wheat flakes. Finish off by cutting. out little rounds of pastry and affanging them all round the edge of the piedish, each one resting on the edge of the next one, like coins. Bake in a hot oven to cook the pastry. Serve with a green vegetable.

Curried Smoked Fish

Skin the smoked fish, cut it into suit-ably-sized pieces and put into saucepan. Cover barely with milk and simmer gently until tender. In another pan, melt 2 tablespoons butter, stir in a tablespoon of grated onion and cook a little; then add a tablespoon of curry powder and let it all cook a minute or so. Then stir in a tablespoon of cornflour mixed with a little milk. Stir and cook till it begins to thicken, then add sufficient milk from the cooked fish to make the sauce of the consistency you like. When the satice is ready, add rings of hardboiled egg and pour the whole over the pieces of smoked fish.

Stu ffed Baked Fish

Une whole fish such as cod or trevalii, 1 cup breadcrumbs, 114% oz. butter, 1 dessertspoon chopped parsley, teaspoon salt, 4% teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon chopped thyme or grated lemon rind, 1 egg. Rub butter into breadcrumbs and add all other ingredients. Bind with beaten egg. Place this in prepared fish,

sew up or fasten with skewers. Brtish a baking dish with melted butter, lay fish on, brush over with remainder of beaten egg atid dust with browned breadcrumbs. Cover with buttered paper and cook in moderate oven about 1 hour. Test thick part of fish with skewer. Serve hot.

FROM THE MAILBAG

Sea Eggs Dear Aunt Daisy, I heard you mention about sea-ege¢s, or Kinas as my race call them. The lady who wrote you was perfectly correct in all she said. Another way that we used to have them, when we were tiny-tots, was to have the tongues or fleshy part scooped out and mashed with potatoes and a wee bit of butter. This is simply delicious for the young ones,-Kathy, | Dunedin,

NEXT WEEK: Uses for Bananas