Sultan Ibrahim à la Parisienne, with Butter

Method: Choose a generous number of Sultan Ibrahim, equal to the number of guests, and take care that no fish weighs less than 220 grams. Clean the fish well, salt it, and season it with allspice. Drench the fish with pure olive oil and grill it. For every four fish choose two or three truffles of the finest kind, cut them up finely, and season them. Arrange the fish in a pot after putting into it half a tablespoon of butter and about a few tablespoonfuls of meat broth. Cover the pot and keep it near a low fire, provided it does not boil. When the fish is done, arrange it on a warmed china platter that has been rubbed with a small quantity of garlic. Cover the fish with a generous quantity of maître d'hôtel butter, and put a little ground allspice with it. Spread the pieces of truffle over the butter — cover the platter and serve it.

Maître d'hôtel butter: Whip a quantity of butter and mix with it chopped parsley, salt, allspice, and the juice of a sour lemon.

A second method for Sultan Ibrahim: it is this — fry the fish, and serve with it, separately, melted butter with lemon juice in it.

Sultan Ibrahim with Tomato Sauce

Quantities: 1200 grams of large Sultan Ibrahim fish 100 grams of onions (slivered) 75 grams of

butter 10 grams of flour One pod of hot pepper 50 grams of water 25 grams of salt 200 grams of tomato sauce without salt 300 grams of red tomatoes 250 grams of oil for frying the fish 2 grams of white pepper

Method: After cleaning and salting the fish, fry it in the oil, and brown the onions lightly in the butter. Then add to them the flour, the tomatoes, the sauce, the salt, and the pepper. Boil all of these together over a low fire until done. Then strain the sauce through a fine strainer and return it to the fire. Arrange the fried fish on a platter, pour the sauce over it, and serve; the sauce may also be served by itself.

Note: This dish can be prepared by baking the fish with butter in the oven, the sauce being

served by itself.

Fish Kibbeh

Quantities: 1000 grams of the flesh of lakkiz, free of bones 500 grams of fine bulgur 150 grams of onions for the kibbeh 40 grams of salt 3 grams of white pepper 30 grams of orange peel, after washing it — this item may be dispensed with 4 bunches of fresh coriander

Method: Remove the fish's bone, spines, and skin after cleaning it. Then pound it in a mortar, pounding continuously until it is smooth. The bulgur is moistened half an hour beforehand, squeezed, and rubbed by hand with a little salt. Lift the smooth fish flesh out of the mortar, and pound the onions with the salt and the pepper. As soon as the onion is smooth, add the coriander and the peel and pound until smooth. Then return the fish to the mortar on top of the items just named and work it well with the bulgur; at that point begin pounding

the bulgur and the fish continuously for about half an hour. If a tray kibbeh baked in the oven is wanted, chop half a kilo of onions into fine slivers and rub them with five grams of salt, one gram of allspice, and a little saffron. Put all this in the bottom of the tray after greasing it with oil; then spread the prepared kibbeh in a single layer of the thickness of meat kibbeh, cut it in the same fashion, drench it with oil, and bake it in a very hot oven. When it is done, take it out of the oven and leave it until it cools; then cut it and serve. It is essential that the kibbeh, before spreading, be sticky (soft), so that it spreads easily. With this kibbeh a fish sauce must be served.

It is also possible to make patties of this kibbeh and