Fennel Nights

What I love most about watching episodes of Julia Child’s The French Chef is how she scrapes the inside of a fish after scaling it and having the scales flying all over the place. I love how she pulls all the guts out, rinses the fish in the sink, puts it in a pan, and pats it like a favorite pet.

I love her 1970’s instructions, that we should store the fish with ice on the bottom and ice on the top and then when we’re ready to cook the fish, swab it with oil inside and out and, of course, give it a good sprinkle of salt and ground pepper (in the cavity) and how she talks about flaming the fish with fennel but that seems beyond me, for some reason.

I love also how she quickly gathers up and throws on the floor anything that smacks of failure, like a poorly cut piece of chicken or a radish that refuses to flower. Mistakes are just so much trash to her. That is my attitude as well so we are simpatico, me and Julia.

There is also Julia’s extraordinary reliance on butter, which, I believe, is the key to all successful cooking, and her resistance to using actual measuring spoons or cups. Just guessing is my favorite thing. I overdo it sometimes, just guessing and then guessing again and again because I thought the first guess was too modest, but never mind.

Right now, Julia is putting the fish head on a pillow of aluminum foil. And stuffing its insides with fennel seeds.

Now it’s in the oven and she has begun the sauce. Much lemon zest. And a stick of butter. Of course. And cream.

Now she is moving her cooked fish to a special fish plate and garnishing it with parsley. She is putting a sprig over its eye. I would do that. For sure.

Back to the sauce goes the juice from the fish and more parsley. Now she is picking up the fish plate like it is a just-diapered baby, that’s how gentle she is about her fish. At the table, she is scattering fennel seeds in a hot pan, adding cognac, and then, of course, striking a match!

The flame is invisible and I sense Julia’s disappointment. She presses on, though, peeling the roasted fish skin back to reveal the perfectly cooked flesh and telling us what wine to drink, as if nothing is amiss.

Julia is my role model, for cooking and much else.