You Don’t Need A Mansion To Make A Delicious Meal

Recently I visited Newport, R.I., where my mother treated me royally. We dined at the finest of restaurants, shopped at unique stores and rose early one morning for a bicycle ride with an ocean view. It was simply wonderful.

A highlight of the trip was touring one of the most elegant mansions along Newport’s Bellevue Avenue. And while most of us wouldn’t use the word “opulent” to describe our dining room decor, it definitely applies to Alva Vanderbilt Belmont’s home.

When she was still married to railroad heir W.K. Vanderbilt Jr., Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to build her a “cottage,” as summer homes were known then. Marble House, which opened in August 1882, was a classic house along Greek lines with European furnishings.

This is luxury at its finest and you stand in awe at the beauty of spaces, such as the dining room. Lined with Numidian marble, a marvelously red-colored marble from Northeastern Africa, the dining room features a portrait of the young Louis XIV, whom Vanderbilt Belmont admired.

Impressive are the dining room table and chairs. Footmen had to be very strong, for each chair is solid bronze and weighs 75 pounds - the two end chairs weigh 150 pounds each - and guests could not move the chairs themselves.

French chefs ran the kitchen, which was in the basement. Food was sent up on dumbwaiter, hidden behind a screen in the dining room. Efficiency was the order of the day and waiters, wearing white gloves, served food on a precise schedule.

There is a room-length gas stove in the kitchen, copper pots so heavy you wonder how anyone can lift them, and one of Vanderbilt Belmont’s favorite table settings - inscribed “Votes For Women.”

It was an inspiring tour and a week of my life I will always treasure.

Here’s a lean fish entree to serve in the beauty of your own home, opulent or not.

Crispy Fish With Tartar Sauce

From “Fabulous Fat-Free Cooking,” by Lynn Fisher (Rodale Press, 1997).

4 fillets flounder or cod (3 ounces each)

1-2 egg whites

1/4 cup grated onions

1/2 cup dry herbed bread crumbs

Tartar sauce:

1 cup fat-free mayonnaise

2 tablespoons chopped dill pickles

2 tablespoons chopped onions

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon capers, rinsed, drained and finely chopped, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse fish and pat dry.

Beat egg white with fork in wide, shallow bowl (you may need the extra egg white to coat the last of the fish). Mix in onions. Place bread crumbs on wax paper. Dip fish in egg mixture, then crumbs, to coat evenly.

Set fish on baking sheet. Reduce heat to 375 degrees. Bake fish about 10 minutes, or until opaque in the center.

Combine tartar sauce ingredients. Mix well. Serve with fish.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving, using 1 egg white: 144 calories, 23 milligrams cholesterol, 13 grams protein, 19 grams carbohydrate, .8 grams fat (5 percent fat calories), 877 milligrams sodium.

, DataTimes MEMO: The goal of Five and Fifteen is to find recipes where you can do the shopping in five minutes and the cooking in 15.

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