Twelth Night

Perhaps appropriately given the occasion, I'd already had two cocktails by the time the camera came out. In any case, not a great photo on account of some shake:

That's Normandy Sole with some steamed red potatoes and Swiss chard.

You may be thinking you don't remember sole coming in mussel shells. It's quite a recipe. I made it this way.

• Make a rich fish broth. 
• Put the broth in a saucepan with thinly slices onions and shallots, a couple of lemon slices and some coarse sea salt and boil gently for a half hour. You need to end up with enough to poach some sole fillets in. Strain and pour into a pan wide enough to poach the fish.
• Then, not surprisingly, you poach the sole and put it and just enough of the juice to keep it from drying in a casserole in a just warm oven (170-190 F) to keep it hot. 
• Meanwhile make some moules mariniere. Once the mussels are open, put them in with the sole. Add the juice from the mussels to the poaching liquid. Begin gently reducing the combined liquids.
• Chop some mushrooms roughly and cook them in butter until they render their juices, Add those to the combined liquids. Continue cooking the mushrooms until ready and add some truffle if you have it. Set aside.
• At this point you have a choice about what else you are going to add. Last night I cooked some scallops and shrimp and added them. You can also add poached oysters, crayfish and breaded smelt. Anyway, fry them up, being careful not to overcook and add them to the sole and mussels.
• Now to finish the sauce. Mix some flour and butter until you have a paste and add it to the liquid stirring well while it thickens and the flour cooks a bit (you don't want a raw flour taste in your sauce). Then turn off the heat. Beat one or two egg yolks and then gently add some of the sauce while whisking all the time so the yolks don't cook. Once the temperature has been gently raised, add the yolk mixture to the sauce. 
• Add a dollop of cream and heat it gently until you're satisfied the eggs are cooked. You can use a thermometer if you are paranoid. I just heat it until it's about to boil, whisking all the time, then turn it off. Taste and season as required. Add some milk or cream if it is too thick.
• Add the mushrooms to the cream sauce and heat through and pour the sauce over the fishes and take it to the table.

I appreciate that those are vaguish directions but if you really want to learn to cook, you have to learn to trust your ability to get the right consistency and taste to a sauce.

And now to put away the Christmas decorations.

Everywhere else in the world they get to celebrate Epiphany today. Here in North America it's just another day. Shameful.