Absolutely excellent, with freshly caught and fried in the garden Ontario cat-fish apparently irreplaceable – but otherwise also very popular.
- shallots,
- vermouth,
- white wine
- fish stock (if available, otherwise a light vegetable stock would have to do: one way or the other make sure it is well reduced before you start the sauce..). The fish raw can be poached to produce some fish stock, or it is already cooked – then you must cheat with whatever you can (vegetable – but not too overwhelming..?, water?). I did well with a gathered supply of frozen shrimp shells i cooked with stock veggies once, then strained and froze in usable 250-400 ml cup portions).
- cream
- sorrel – best fresh from the garden, well washed, and chopped (to avoid the unappealing effect of “hair bundles”, when cooked). Alternatively you can strip the leaves off a nice bunch of sorrel, removing the central rib (in effect halving each leaf lengthwise) and ripping any very large leaves into pieces. You don’t want tiny pieces: sorrel melts away to nearly nothing as it is.it needs to be rinsed and spin dried.
- lemon juice
- salt, pepper
- a little butter
- Take a nice shallot and sweat it in a little butter;
- Deglaze with a splash of dry white vermouth and reduce to nearly nothing;
- Add some white wine and reduce again.
- Now, the fish stock, reduced fairly slowly to just a couple of tablespoons (if the stock is rich, use only half a cup or so, but if it is very light, use anything up to a cup and a half)
- At this point you can set it aside and finish it at dinner time.
- When the fishcakes are just about done, heat up the sauce reduction and add maybe half a cup of cream; taste at this point
- Pile in the sorrel, which will look as big as a haystack. Stir it around with a spoon
- Add a tablespoon of lemon juice, check for salt and pepper and swirl in a little butter.