Sole meunière

Sole meunière is truly a classic of French cooking, and is a classic for a reason. Each year, I teach this dish as part of the fish course and my students are always blown away with how tasty this very simple dish is. It really proves that simplicity is the key to really great meals.

The only thing you need for this dish is your sole, or really any other white fish, some flour, salt and pepper, a lemon, some parsley, and the star of the dish, butter. And you really want real butter if at all possible.

Now, the real success to this dish, just like most dishes, is the mise en place, better understood as the pre-preparation before you even turn on your stove. As you watch the video, you will notice that the rice and peas that I served with my dish are started before I even do any of the prep for the sole. The fish will cook very quickly, so you need to make sure that everything is ready to go.

I start by preparing some very thin slices of lemon without any peels. These get placed directly on top of the fish. The next thing I do is chop up some parsley, but you can use dry if you want. If you are using dry, you can place a small amount in a bowl and cover with a very small amount of hot water, which will allow the parsley to rehydrate and will be closer to fresh parsley.

With this complete, add a bit of butter to your skillet and turn on to a medium heat. We want our butter to melt and get a little frothy. While the butter is melting, season your sole fillets with salt and pepper. I opted for white pepper, but feel free to use black pepper. Then lightly coat the fish with flour, and shake any excess flour off.

Place your fillets in the pan flesh side down. We always should start our fish, or any protein really, with the presentation side, and when it comes to fish, that is the flesh side, or the inside. The skin side should be against the plate. Make sure that your pan is not too hot. Once browned, carefully flip and finish cooking.

Place the cooked fish on a plate, and top with your lemon slices. I forgot to do the next step, but was still happy with how it came out. Once your lemon slices are on, give a little squeeze of the other half of the lemon over the top of the fish; I went for extra slices of fish, and then sprinkle a little parsley over the top.

The next step is to prepare a beurre noisette, or brown butter. Simply place some butter in a skillet or small pot and allow to melt and start to colour. You certainly don’t want the heat to be too high, or your will burn your butter. Keep a close eye, and just as some colour starts to develop, remove from the heat. The heat left in the pan will be more than enough to finish the butter. Pour over the top of the fish, and serve.

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