Mayonnaise de Soles à la Cherbourgeoise.—Fillet
some soles, and cut each fillet into two or more
pieces, according to the size of the fish; bat these
out with a wet knife, season each with lemon juice,
white pepper, and salt, and then roll each about
some pieces of carrot (the size of a small wine cork,
as the fillets should be small), fastening them in
place with bands of buttered paper. Place these
fillets in a pan with a sherryglassful of white wine
(French for choice), a gill of fish stock or water, a
pinch of salt, and a little lemon juice, and cook for
twelve to fifteen minutes under a buttered paper,
then lift out, and when cold slip out the carrots.
Fill up the centre of each fillet with rich mayonnaise,
into which you have stirred some minced olives, and
place the little rolls in an aspic-lined border mould
alternately with an olive farced with a fillet of
anchovy; then set this all with enough aspic to fill
the mould, and leave it till set. Meanwhile prepare
a sauce thus: Make a custard with half a pint of
milk and the yolks of three or four eggs, seasoning
this rather highly with salt, white pepper, and a
good dust of coralline pepper, and set it aside till
cold. Now put about a gill of Chablis, or good
French vinegar, into a pan with a small minced
shallot, a peppercorn or two, and a pinch of salt,
and boil this down sharply till only a tablespoonful
or so is left; then whisk it all very gradually to the
cold custard, mixing in at the same time about two
spoonfuls of shrimp purée (i.e., shrimps rubbed
through a sieve with a little butter), and a full one of
roughly minced shrimps. Pour this mixture into
some aspic-lined dariole moulds, pouring more aspic
over the top to fix them, and leave till quite set.
Now well wash, dry, and break up some good
lettuce, turn out the border mould, arrange the little
dariole moulds all round the top, and fill up the
centre with the lettuce tossed in a good mayonnaise
dressing, only adding this in at the last, and, if
liked, mixing some shelled shrimps amongst the
lettuce.
Soles prepared thus are delicious if the centre of
the mould is filled with a mixture of cold, cooked,
sliced Jerusalem artichokes, sliced truffles, finely
shred celery (or sliced cooked celeriac), and stewed
mussels, or raw oysters, adding the liquor of the
latter to the mayonnaise sauce.
Treated thus it is known as Mayonnaise de soles à la
Célestine. This can naturally be varied to any extent.
Another form, Mayonnaise de soles à l'Agnès, is made
by filling an aspic-lined border mould with broken up
lettuce, sliced radishes, cucumber, &c., all tossed in
a rich mayonnaise sauce, garnishing the top with
little rolled fillets of sole with a farced olive on the
top of each, and filling the centre with the following:
To a full gill or rather more of rich lobster sauce add