Don't Sweat the Aubergine

cakes in the flour first, then dip them in the egg, and then turn them in the breadcrumbs. It all gets a bit messy; and the fingers that touch the cakes come away with bits of bread stuck to them. But the browned coating may have a more coherent appearance than you expect.
    Warm a frying pan over a medium heat; add enough oil (you choose what kind) and butter to coat the surface with a little to spare; when the butter is sizzling, slide in the fish cakes. (If the butter and oil mixture is not hot, the fish cakes will absorb more of it.) When you think the undersides are brown (probably after a couple of minutes), turn the cakes over gently. The other sides will brown faster.
    It is possible that your fish cakes will not be properly warmed through by this time. Transfer them to a baking sheet, and put them into a gas mark 4/180°C oven for 10 minutes.
    It would be a shame to waste the milk. Make a béchamel with it ( see here ; with 250ml milk, you probably need about 25g each of butter and flour).
    If you find you’ve used too much flour for the milk you have, you’ll have to thin the sauce with more milk from the fridge . Season with nutmeg and salt; pepper too, if you like. Cook quickly 400g spinach ( see here ); drain it in a colander, pushing out the excess liquid with a wooden spoon. Stir the spinach into the béchamel. You could chop it first.
    Divide the sauced spinach between two warm plates, and lay the fish cakes on top.
FISH SOUP, OR STEW
    As Richard Olney puts it, inimitably: ‘The line dividing a soup from a stew is often infirm.’ With both, you may get bowls full of chunky bits of fish and vegetables, sitting in quite a lot of liquid, and you need a spoon among your cutlery.
    The following recipe will make a soup or a stew; if you want a smooth soup, it will make that too.
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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    For 8, easily
    For the stock
    Fish offcuts and heads (ask a fishmonger – the last time I did, I got charged £1 for a bagful)
    Dark green parts of 3 leeks and of a bunch of spring onions, washed
    Stalks and fronds of a fennel bulb
    Stalks of a handful of flat-leaf parsley
    2 celery sticks
    8 garlic cloves
    For the stew
    1.5kg mixed fish, 1 cut into chunks; if the fish are whole, use every bit of them, heads included
    Olive oil
    2 onions, roughly chopped (i. e., into chunks rather than fine pieces)
    White and pale green parts of 3 leeks, sliced into fork-sized pieces
    White and pale green parts of bunch of spring onions, roughly chopped
    3 garlic cloves, chopped
    1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped
    4 celery sticks, roughly chopped
    125ml white wine
    2 bay leaves
    500g carton passata
    Zest of 1 orange
    Salt
    1.5 litres fish stock
    450g new potatoes, boiled and sliced
    Handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
    1 heaped tsp saffron fronds
    Rouille (see below)
    1 baguette, for croutons
    Prepare the stock (for general remarks about fish stock, or for a different recipe, which would also be fine here, see here ). Cover the fish offcuts in cold water in a stock pot, bring to a simmer, skim off the surface froth, and throw in the vegetables. Cook on a very low heat for about 40 minutes. Sieve, return the stock to a pan, and simmer until reduced to about 1.5 litres.
    Meanwhile, choose a large saucepan or casserole. I have a 28cm, oval Le Creuset; this stew filled it almost to the brim. Pour a layer of oil into the bottom, and throw in all the vegetables (except the cooked potatoes), cooking them over a low to medium heat until they start to turn golden. Pour in the wine, and allow it to bubble for a couple of minutes. Add the bay leaves, passata, orange zest, and salt to taste. Simmer until reduced and thickened.
    Have your stock simmering in a saucepan. Turn up the heat under the stew, and pour in the stock. This is how you’re supposed to make a bouillabaisse, liaising the stock and the vegetable mixture. You’ll be surprised at how thick the sauce remains. Let it simmer for 5 minutes or so. Throw in the cooked potatoes, and bring back to a simmer. Check the seasoning.
    Submerge the fish in the stew. Cook for 5 minutes longer. Check the fish: it should be ready. Turn off the heat, and stir in the parsley and saffron.
    You could go on – after you’ve turned off the heat, but before you’d added the parsley and saffron – to make a smooth soup. It’s one of my favourite things.
    Place a food mill, with the coarse mesh attached, over another pan, and pass the stew/soup through it, pushing down on the fish with a