Thursday, September 27, 2012

# 234 McCall's Cooking School-Fish Filets in Fancy Dress


Is the Rag weed season sending you into a haze? Well, it may sound strange, but I'm beating my allergies by staying indoors and doing some 'Fall' cleaning!! On one such cleaning spree last Saturday and to my surprise, one of my favorite old cookbooks fell out of the kitchen cabinet. This is not just a cookbook, it is a treasure from my child-raising years. Some of you may be the proud owners this 1980's fame called McCalls' Recipes.  Over 2 decades I've collected the replacement recipages from them and have a grand collection in my binder. Each page is pre-punched with 3 holes along the left edge for easy insertion into the three ring binders. So I've made Chicken and dumplings, Roman Veal Scallopini, baked manicotti, three layered cakes and many more just for my girls while they were children, mostly as weekend meals and desserts. I love recipe books with large colorful live photos of how to make the food. Don't you?


I grabbed the book that was once my kitchen bible and rekindled memories of a few dishes -favs of N and V(my daughters).  Today I noticed a grown -up dish with fish filets that I've never made before so I decided to make a special dinner for my family as they gathered around the family room. As my husband R watched the football game, N(my older daughter) and V(my younger daughter) cheering on the team they were supporting on Monday.

Ingredients:
8 filets of Fish(Tilapia or Flounder)
3/4 tspn salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup snipped fresh dill
3/4 cup white wine
butter or margerine
1/2 lb mushrooms sliced

Sauce:
Reserved fish liquid
1/4 cup flour
1 cup light cream

Mashed Potato Topping:
3 lb White potatoes
1/3 cup butter or margerine
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1/8 tspn pepper
1 egg yolk
dill sprigs

Method:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Rinse and dry fish filets. Fold in half and arrange in abaking dish.
2. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, lemon juice and snipped dill. Add wine and cut 1 Tblspoons butter in small pieces over the filets and dot them. Cover with foil and bake for 15 mins and remove, cool.


3. Carefully drain off liquid and reserve it.


4. Meanwhile, in 3 Tblspns hot butter in a skillet saute sliced mushrooms over low heat until they are tender about 10 mins. Add the flour to the mushrooms and stir until cooked.
5. Add the reserved fish liquid slowly and whisk until it is cooked well and smooth.
6. Cook iver medium heat stirring and whisking until mixture boils. Pour the sauce over the fish.
7. Pare the potatoes, cut in quarters. Cook in inch lightly salted water covered just until the potatoes are tender(for about 20 mins)..
8. Drain very well, return to saucepan. Heat gently over low heat to dry out potatoes.Beat with an electric beater until smooth. In a saucepan heat butter and milk just till the butter melts. Gradually beat in hot milk mixture until smooth.
9. Beat in salt. pepper and egg yolk until light and fluffy.
10. Take the mashed potato in a pastry bag with number- 6 tip make a lattice pattern over the fish and around the edge. Place in the oven and bake at 350 degrees F until bubbly and hot and potato is lightly browned. Garnish with dill sprigs.




2 comments:

  1. Don't you just love it when you find an old friend? That's how I feel when I find an old cookbook I haven't used in a awhile. I can see why you like this dish, it looks amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. what a wonderful and different way to eat fish. I love the pastry on top and how it makes the whole dish light and fluffy so to speak. It looks just delicious

    ReplyDelete

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