Hot Medallions Of Halibut, Vermicelli Style

Have halibut steaks cut a generous half-inch thick. Remove skin and bone from the steaks, to secure fillets or pieces containing nothing unedible. Press each fillet into a flat, round, or medallion shape, and use wooden toothpicks, dipped in melted butter, if necessary, to hold these in shape. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the prepared fish. Then pile the medallions one above another, with slices of onion between, and set aside until ready to cook. Cover the bones and trimmings with cold water. Add a few slices of carrot and half an onion, into which three cloves have been pressed and let simmer half an hour for stock. Two hard-cooked eggs are needed for each four medallions. Set the medallions in an agate baking dish, a bit of butter on each; pour in half a cup of fish stock and let cook very gently ten or fifteen minutes. Make (for eight fillets) a pint of fish Bechamel sauce, using for this the fish stock and cream. Lay the medallions on a serving dish, or individual dishes, remove toothpicks if present. To half of the sauce add the chopped whites of eggs and spread over the medallions, sift the yolks above. Serve the rest of the sauce around the fish.

Broiled Halibut Fillets, With Duchesse Potato Balls

Have slices of halibut cut below the opening in the body of the fish. From these remove the skin and bone, thus securing four fillets from each slice. Set these in a hot and well-oiled broiler and let cook over hot coals until browned a little on each side. Turn every ten seconds. From six to ten minutes, according to the thickness of the fillets, will be required for cooking. After the first two minutes draw the fish farther from the coals. Set the fillets on a hot platter, and dispose the balls around them; serve sauce tartare in a bowl.

For the balls shape duchesse potato mixture into balls an inch and a half in diameter, egg-and-bread crumb, and fry in deep fat.

Julienne Of Halibut, Fried, Figaro Sauce

Have slices of halibut, three-fourths an inch thick; remove the fillets, cut these in halves, lengthwise, and then crosswise, if of a suitable length. Sprinkle with salt, paprika, onion and lemon juice, roll in flour, then dip in fritter batter and fry in deep fat. The strips will cook in three or four minutes, as soon as the batter is colored properly. Drain on soft paper, then dispose in a hot oven until all are cooked. Do not let the pieces touch each other or they will lose crispness. Serve on a plate covered with a hot napkin. Serve the cold Figaro sauce in a bowl apart.

Fried Fillets Of Fish

Halibut, flounder and bass are particularly good cooked in this way. The fish must be free of bones and skin and the fillets should be of the same shape and size. Rub the fillets with the cut side of an onion and sprinkle them with melted butter and lemon juice, or let them stand half an hour in French dressing, to which onion juice has been added. Drain, roll in flour, then in egg and crumbs, and fry in deep fat. It will take about six minutes to cook the fillets. Drain on soft paper. Serve with highly seasoned tomato sauce, sauce tartare, or Bearnaise Tomatée.

Fillets Of Halibut, St. Germain

To serve eight get two slices of halibut half an inch thick from below the body opening in the fish. Remove the fillets, sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper, roll, and run through each a wooden toothpick dipped in melted butter (that it may be removed easily). Egg-and-bread crumb the turbans and fry in deep fat about six minutes. Drain on soft paper. Dispose each fillet on a slice of lemon. Over each turban set a spoonful of thick Bearnaise sauce. Dispose fried potato balls at each end of the dish.

Fillets Of Halibut, With Asparagus Tips

For eight fillets purchase two slices of halibut, cut, half an inch thick, from below the body opening of a small fish. Remove skin and bones, and use these with two or three slices, each, of onion and carrot, two stalks of parsley and a few leaves of sweet basil (dried) in making stock. Season the fillets with salt and pepper; after squeezing over them a few drops of lemon juice, fold in the middle over a piece of uncooked potato, half an inch thick and as long as the fillets are wide, well-buttered, that it may be removed easily; pour over the fillets, disposed in an agate baking dish, a little of the fish stock and let cook about fifteen minutes, basting with the stock three times. Chop fine two ounces of fresh mushrooms and cook in one or two table-spoonfuls of butter about five minutes; add one-fourth a cup of cream and one-half a cup of fresh cooked-and-drained asparagus heads. Set the fillets of fish on a serving dish, first removing the pieces of potato; add the liquid in the pan to the mushrooms, cream, etc., and let boil once, then pour over the fish and serve. Serve at the same time rolls or potatoes in some fancy style.

Fillets Of Halibut, American Style

The fillets may be secured from thin slices of halibut of good size or from one side of a small halibut lifted from the central bone. Cut eight or ten fillets of the same size and with pointed ends. Fold over a double cube of raw potato, well-buttered to remove easily, and set to poach in about a cup of well-reduced fish stock, made from the trimmings of the fish. See Chapter II. Dispose the fillets in an oval wreath on a hot dish, one overlapping another, the pointed ends underneath. Pour lobster, cooked American style, into the center of the dish and sprinkle the whole with coarse-chopped parsley. For Lobster, American Style, see Chapter V.