Recipe - Baked Codfish With Spinach And Cheese Sauce

3 tablespoon Butter
2 tablespoon Flour
1 One half cup Milk
One fourth cup Heavy cream
1 cup Gruy#re
1 Egg Yolk
Salt
Pepper, black
1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 pn Cayenne
1 pound Spinach; fresh
2 tablespoon Shallot; finely chopped
4 Cod steaks
One half cup Wine, white
2 tablespoon Parmesan; grated

* The cod steaks should be boneless and skinless, about 6 ounce each. Melt 1
tablespoon of the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and stir with a wire
whisk until blended.

Add the milk and cream all at once. Stir rapidly with the whisk. Bring to a
boil and add the Gruyere cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted. Add the
egg yolk, stirring rapidly with the whisk. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and
cayenne. Simmer, stirring, for 1 minute. Set aside, cover and keep warm.
Pick over spinach and discard any tough stems. Wash spinach thoroughly to
remove any sand. Put spinach in a large saucepan, add salt and cook on high
heat, stirring, until wilted, about 2 minutes. Drain well and squeeze out
excess moisture. Set aside and keep warm. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Grease
a metal baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Scatter the shallots
over the dish. neatly arrange the pieces of cod over the shallots. Season
with salt and pepper. Add the wine, cover with foil and bring to a boil on
top of the stove. Put the dish in the oven and bake for 5 minutes.

Select a baking dish large enough to hold the fish in 1 layer. Spread the
remaining 1 tablespoon of butter over the bottom of the dish. Spoon the
spinach over the bottom and carefully transfer the cooked codfish over the
spinach, reserving the wine liquid in the first dish.

Reduce by One half the wine liquid in the metal baking dish and add it to the
cheese sauce. Bring to a boil stirring with a wire whisk. Spoon the hot
sauce over the fish, smoothing it over to cover the fish. Sprinkle with
Parmesan cheese. Turn on the broiler unit and put the dish under the
broiler with the door open until nicely browned and bubbling.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini