Recipe 2

A Treasury of Great Recipes was first published in 1965 and republished in 1974.  This is really a Tome of a cookbook.  This is no dalliance of a Hollywood elite thinking they can just turn out a cookbook because a. they're famous and b. they follow a special diet  that they think is somehow delicious and of interest to the public (yes, I'm thinking of you Gwyenth!).  This is a serious, useful cookbook for true gourmets.  I actually requires some skill to cook from, but it is a great cookbook to train on.  It is also of huge historical import when it comes to food, as it provides actual menus from some the most famous restaurants around the world.  One thing it is not is pretentious, and it written very well, with easy to follow instructions for even the haute dishes that it presents (like Pressed Duck).  Anyway,  I was a huge fan of Price when I was a kid and had no idea that he was a chef until much later.  This recipe comes from section of the book entitled "Specialties of Our House."

FILLETS OF SOLE IN CREAM ASPIC

I picked this because it's a cold dish, and we are headed into serious summer here in the South!  I've simplified some of the instructions, because most fish comes filleted and frozen.  Flounder can, of course, be substituted.

6 Soles (or any number of fillets you like)

Butter

Dry White Wine (the good stuff)

Cream

Salt to taste

Cayenne powder to taste

Unflavored gelatin

Fresh Tarragon

1.  Preheat oven to 35o degrees.  Fillet the soles (if they are not filleted already).  Cut each fillet in half lengthwise.  Roll into tight rolls and secure with wooden toothpicks.  

2.  Well butter a baking pan, place the sole rolls in dish.  Dot each with butter and pour around a tbsp. of cream.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.  Remove to a shallow serving plate.

3.  If the fish were whole, make a fish stock out of the scraps, adding butter and about 1 1/2 cups of the wine.  But these days fish stock can be bought, just heat 1 cup and add the butter and wine and reduce (boil hard) for about 5 minutes.  

4.  Dissolve the gelatin in warm water or hot wine.  Let the fish stock cool for about 20 minutes stirring to release heat.  Then stir in cream, salt and cayenne, finally whisk in the dissolved gelatin and strain over the fish.  Completely cool and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours (overnight is best).  To Serve:  Remove from fridge and decorate with fresh tarragon leaves.

Finished dish looks a bit like this