Butter and Lemon Together as One: Sole Meunière

This is a classic. Fish fried in brown butter, lightened with lemon and topped with fresh parsley. A bistro dish all the way. I had my first encounter with this dish when I was quite young. I was an avid fisherman and not the biggest fan of eating fish unless it was battered and deep fried. The rich nutty brown butter, soft fish and acidic lemon really stuck with me and even years later I can still remember that distinctive taste. This dish is also perfect for those people who are a little nervous cooking fish: as long as you follow along all the steps and all of your ingredients are prepped and ready to go before you start it’ll be a dish to remember.

Use the freshest fish you can find. Can’t stress that enough. Smell it...does it smell fishy? Like in a funky way? It’s no good. I used sole. It is cheap and easy to find where I live but you could also try this recipe with a thin filleted white fish of other varieties: cod, flounder, etc. It has to be thin because of the cooking process: you don’t want the butter to burn. Reading through some old cook books that talk about this recipe I see they all stress fresh lemon juice but I usually just buy one lemon for the zest and some of the juice with the rest coming from one of those big bottles I keep in my fridge of store bought lemon juice. The French might kill me for that.

Sole Meunière

Ingredients:

2-4 Fresh sole fillets (I usually prefer to make this for two people max as I don’t like to keep the fish waiting around long after it has been cooked. That being said sometimes the fillets are small and sometimes you want to pig out.)

A plate spread with a scant ½ cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper

6 tbsp of butter

Lemon zest of 1 whole lemon

6 tbsp lemon juice (about 2 ½ whole lemons.....or juice of 1 lemon and 4ish Tbsp of lemon juice, I won’t tell.)

Small handful of finely chopped parsley

Method:

• Prep all your ingredients beforehand. Following this recipe is a simple recipe for the potatoes I used in the photo.
• In a shallow frying pan, melt the butter over medium high. Swirl it every once in a while until you start to see it brown slightly.
• Dredge the fillets into the flour, making sure they are fully coated and lightly shake off the excess. Lay them carefully into the pan and when they are all in, turn down the heat to just below medium.
• After about two minutes, carefully flip the fillets with a good flipper (obviously if they are not a nice color let them cook a little longer)
• When they are flipped, sprinkle over and around the lemon zest and juice, swirl the pan lightly to coat the fillets. Cook about another two minutes on that side.
• Plate the fish, drizzle with the pan juices and sprinkle with the fresh parsley. Serve right away, wasting no time.

Triple Cooked Potatoes

I am a big fan of this recipe simply because it doesn’t interfere with the entrée cooking. You literally get these suckers ready and then move them out of the way and do your thing. The combo of steaming and then pan frying creates a soft centred potato with a crunchy outside.

• Start with small potatoes (I don’t care what kind, Yukon gold, fingerling, red, white or purple), slice them in half and clean under cold water.
• Place the potatoes into a sauce pot and cover by about an inch with cold water and heavily salt them.
• Turn the pot on high, covered and bring them to the boil. Preheat the oven to about 400⁰.
• When the pot is boiling rapidly, let it go for about a minute and then drain the potatoes. Leave them in the colander to steam for a few minutes while you get an oven proof pan on the stove on medium high with a tablespoon or two of oil and butter inside.
• When the pan is nice and hot, slowly add your potatoes. Shake the pan, don’t stir (stirring causes them to break up). Cook for a few minutes and then add in some flavor. I used a little diced red onion, some minced garlic and some rosemary for this recipe here.
• When you start to see browning on the potatoes, give them one last good shake and flip and put the whole pan into the oven. Turn the oven down to about 300⁰.
• The potatoes will finish cooking in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, turn the oven off after that and they will stay warm until you are ready for them.