Don't Sweat the Aubergine

sauce is called a velouté); but I find a flour-based sauce a bit heavy as an accompaniment to delicate-fleshed fish, except in fish pie ( see here ).
    Leave out the cream; just enrich the reduced stock with a little butter, added away from the heat to prevent splitting. Sauté some mushrooms, with a little garlic if you like ( see here ) and add them to the reduced stock. Sharpen the sauce with a squirt or two of lemon juice.
STEAMED FISH
    You can steam a fish or a fish fillet – the same kinds of fish that you would poach (see above) – as you would vegetables, in a steaming basket ( see here ) placed above salted boiling water in a saucepan. Or you could put a rack inside a roasting pan, and steam your fish, covered tightly with foil, either on the hob or in the oven. A whole fish may take 12 to 15 minutes; a fillet may be ready in less than 3 minutes. The flesh turns white, and acquires a flaky, rather than taut, texture.
    There, you have a steamed fish. Even I, an advocate of simplicity, can see that it needs a little embellishment. An eggy sauce, such as mayonnaise ( see here ) or aioli ( see here ) or hollandaise ( see here ), might suit. Or try an oriental theme.
    For 2
    1 garlic clove
    2 spring onions, coarse green parts removed
    1 tsp ginger
    1 dstsp sunflower, groundnut or vegetable oil
    1 dstsp vinegar
    1 dstsp soy sauce
    1 dstsp sesame oil
    Here’s the schedule for a very quick meal: put a steaming basket in a saucepan, pour in water beneath it, add salt, put a lid on the pan, and put the pan on the heat.
    Cut up the garlic, spring onions and ginger, and get ready the other sauce ingredients. By this time, the water should be boiling; place a couple of fish fillets in the basket, and cover.
    Warm a frying pan or saucepan over a medium to high heat. 1 Add the oil, and when it is hot (but before it smokes), add the garlic, spring onions and ginger, and stir them around quickly until the onion wilts a little – no more than 30 seconds.
    Add the vinegar, and let it evaporate for a minute. 2 Remove from the heat, and stir in the soy sauce and sesame oil. 3
    By this time, the fish may be ready; remove the fillets to warm plates, and pour the sauce over each.
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WHY YOU DO IT
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    1 • Warming the pan first . Or else you might overheat the oil. See here .
    2 • Evaporate the vinegar . Reducing vinegar – and alcohol – removes some of its harsh notes. See here .
    3 • Delicate sesame . You have to be very careful if you fry with sesame oil – it burns at a low temperature. Here, you’re using it as a flavouring rather than as a frying aid.
    You can also half-poach, half-steam fish in milk in the oven. It’s a useful method for preparing the fish for a fish pie: the milk doesn’t boil too rapidly, as it might do in a covered pan on the hob, and then provides the basis for the sauce.
FISH PIE
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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    For 4
    650g smoked haddock
    560ml milk
    10 black peppercorns
    1 bay leaf
    900g maincrop potatoes (King Edward, Maris Piper or Desirée, for example)
    57g butter
    57g plain flour
    Handful of parsley, chopped
    50g more butter
    Put the haddock fillets in an ovenproof dish, and set the oven at gas mark 4/180°C. Heat the milk gently in a saucepan with the peppercorns and bay leaf; when it starts to bubble, pour it over the haddock, cover the dish with foil, and put it in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. The fish has got more cooking to come, so it doesn’t need to be cooked through; all you need now is to get it to a stage at which you can flake it. 1
    Or: put the haddock into a saucepan, cover with the milk, peppercorns and bay leaf, bring gently to the boil, turn off the heat, cover the pan, and leave for 5 to 10 minutes.
    Peel the potatoes, cut them into slices about 1.5cm thick, cover with cold water, bring to a gentle simmer, and cook until tender. Drain them, and return them to the hot saucepan to dry. Mash them; as when making shepherd’s pie ( see here ), you may not feel that a perfect purée is essential, so use a hand-held masher if you like. Season. (No milk and no butter at this stage.)
    Lift the fish out of the milk, which you should strain and reserve.
    Melt the butter in a non-stick saucepan, add the flour to make a roux, cook it gently for a couple of minutes until sandy (but don’t let it darken), and gradually add the strained milk to make a béchamel ( see here ), stirring continuously. Let the sauce bubble for a minute or so, then throw in the parsley. Check the