Filets de Merlan Orly

Filets de Merlan Orly (whiting fillets in frying batter with tomato sauce) teaches one discipline above all: everything must be ready before the fish touches the fat. The sauce tomate (smooth tomato sauce) is finished, the parsley is fried, the platter is waiting, and only then do you coat the fillets. Crisp fish cannot be held without paying for it.

The source reaches for Filets de Soles Orly (No. 893), applying that finished preparation to whiting. The old kitchen assumed a saucier with tomato sauce ready, a fryer held at service heat, and enough hands to cook every portion at the last moment. At home, a saucepan, a deep heavy pot, and a thermometer do the same work for four. The alternate ornamental hatelet, a service skewer, and corkscrew shapes are brigade presentation scaffolding, so they go; the pâte à frire (frying batter), fried parsley, and separately served tomato sauce are the dish, so all three stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the batter forms a thin golden shell around moist flakes of whiting, the parsley is dark green and crisp, and the butter-built sauce gleams red in its own boat. Dry the fillets thoroughly and hold the fat near 180°C before frying. That temperature, steady rather than smoking, decides the dish.