Perch, Silesian Style

Cooking the perch before removing the scales is the key to Silesian style perch.

Draw and clean two or three fine perch, but do not scale them. Put some water in a saucepan with a bunch of parsley, a little vinegar and salt and boil it; then plunge the perch into it and boil for twenty minutes. Make the following sauce: Put in a stewpan two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a few sprigs of parsley, a little tarragon, two chopped shallots, a bay leaf, and four or five peppercorns. Boil the liquid till reduced to half its original quantity. Leave it till cool, then mix with it a teacupful of melted glaze, the beaten yolks of six eggs, four ounces of butter and a little salt, stir the sauce over a very slow fire to thicken without letting it boil. Place the same in a bain-marie and whisk it, adding gradually some small pieces of butter. When frothy put in a teacupful of brown sauce and about two tablespoonfuls of grated horseradish. Remove the perch carefully with a skimmer, scrape the scales off, dip the fish in the cooking liquor, then wipe them in a cloth; put them in a hot dish, pour the prepared sauce over them, first mixing with it a little chopped parsley and a few capers and serve. Care must be taken to remove the scales quite cleanly or they will spoil the dish.