PastaLover wrote:

> There used to be a time when EVERYTHING was cooked in bacon drippings.
>
> Travel Channel just had an episode of Taste of America where the host
> went to Michigan or Wisconsin and they served up Trout Hemingway;
> rainbow trout, cleaned, corn meal breading, fried in bacon fat, and
> served with a stripe of bacon in the cavity of the fish. Attributed to
>
> writer Ernest Hemingway.
>
> Damn, makes me hungry just thinking about it....

Carpe a l'Anciene
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Remove the head and tail from the carp and with the flesh prepare a
forcemeat using butter and keeping the mixture rather firm.

On to a suitable base or dish, mould this forcemeat into the shape of
the body of the carp enclosing it in a regency garnish for fish mixed
with some thick sauce espagnole made with fish fumet.

Place he head and tail in their correct positions taking care that they
are joined to the forcemeat, then decorate it all over with crescents of
truffle cut into graduated sizes so as to represent the scales of the
fish.

Sprinkle with melted butter, cover with thin slices of slat pork fat and
then with sheets of paper; cook carefully in a fairly slow oven and when
ready,. ready, remove the paper and fat; serve accompanied with sauce
genevoise.
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And here's another for sheldon to go ballistic over

Carpe a la Biere (carpe with beer)
---------------------------------------

Cook 5 ounces of sliced onions in butter without colour and place in the
bottom of a fish kettle, place the carp either whole or in fillets on
top and add 2 ounces sliced celery, 1 ounce diced gingerbread (pain
d'epice). A bouquet garni and sufficient light beer to barely cover the
fish. Cover with the lid and braise gently in the oven.

Serve the fish with a garnish of the poached soft roes from the carp and
coat with a sauce made form the cooking liquid, which has been reduced
by a good third, passed through a fine strainer and thickened and
enriched with a little butter.
-----

And of course this without even mentioning grilling oysters wrapped in
bacon or large prawns done the same way with a port wine reduction
sauce.

One of my favourites, though nothing to do with fish, is canapés saint
antoine, buttered toast covered with a puree of roquefort cheese mixed
with a third its weight of butter and seasoned with a touch of cayenne,
gratinated under the broiler and a grilled rasher of bacon place on
top. Ummm...bacon and blue cheese....
---
JL