FISH & SELLFISH Many cooks today neglect fish because they don’t quite understand what to with it. Too often they egg and breadcrumb it and fry it until it is hard, dry and tasteless; or they boil it until it disintegrates into o soft, flavorless mush. Reasonable Canned sardines and anchovies – Serve on buttered fingers of toast or black bread, garnished with sieved hard-boiled egg yolk and squeeze of lemon. Canned tuna and salmon – Mix with a little finely chopped onion and freshly ground black pepper and dress with olive oil or lemon juice to taste. Smoked salmon – Buy in pepper-thin slices professionally cut across the grain. Serve on lightly oiled plates, accompanied by thin slices of brown bread and butter, and wedges of lemon to squeeze over the top. Have a coarse-grinding mill of black pepper at hand. Smoked trout – Skin and fillet smoked trout. Serve fillets on an oiled platter with lemon wedges (or whipped cream flavored with grated horseradi...
Appetizers and Simple Fist Courses Most of us agree that our first impressions-whether it is of a new friend, a work of art or a holiday resort-tend to linger on in our memory, making us overlook and forgive some subsequently discovered short coming. In the ephemeral, magic world of cooking, the burden of responsibility for this all important ‘first impression lies with the appetites of our guests, evoking in them a state of delicious anticipation for what is to follow. In this first chapter, we run through the simplest appetizers of all. Most of our recipes are composed of easily obtainable and economical ingredients. Just open & serve The simplest appetizers of all are those we can buy already sliced, smoked, canned or frozen. Frankly expensive Caviar Black caviar is the roe of the sturgeon and the finest (and most expensive) of all. Red caviar, which is delicious for all that is considered socially inferior to the black, usually comes from salmon Cav...