Matelote

A matelote is the name given in French cooking to a fish stew made with white or red wine. It is normally made with freshwater fish, and may contain a mixture of different fish or a single species. It is traditionally garnished with small onions and mushrooms that have been cooked with the fish.

Name and techniques
Matelote is the feminine form of Matelot – sailor. The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française dates the word from the 16th century and defines it as "A dish consisting of one or more kinds of freshwater fish, stewed with wine and herbs". The term is recorded in English use from the 18th century onward. Matelotes are also called meurettes, pochouses, pauchouses, potchouzes, or waterzoï according to district and method of preparation.

According to Prosper Montagné in Larousse Gastronomique, the only matelote made from sea fish is the matelote à la normande, which is made with sole, conger eel and gurnet. Montagné adds, "The term matelote is also loosely and improperly applied to dishes made of veal and poultry. We confine ourselves merely to mentioning this misnomer. We cannot recommend that it should be used in the drawing-up of menus".

Most matelotes are garnished with small onions and mushrooms, cooked with the fish, and often with freshwater crayfish cooked in a court-bouillon. Croutons or other variants of fried bread are generally served with the dish.

Variants
Despite the disapproval of Larousse, calves' brains may be served en matelote, poached in stock with sliced onions, carrots and red wine, served sliced, garnished with the glazed onions, mushrooms and heart-shaped croutons typical of matelotes. In the mid-18th-century the English cook Hannah Glasse published a recipe for what she called "A Pig Matelot", which included crayfish, eels, white wine and herbs, but also most of a whole pig, chopped into pieces. In 1909 Auricoste de Lazarque published a recipe for Matelote sans poisson, for those who have been let down by their fishmonger. It uses most of the usual ingredients but replaces the missing fish with slices of firmly-cooked omelette.