Dover sole with brown shrimp, samphire and roasted wafer potatoes

Serves 4 Starters and mains

Dover sole with brown shrimp, samphire and roasted wafer potatoes

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Ingredients

  • 700g King Edward potatoes
  • 75g ghee
  • 2 Dover sole, around 350g each, trimmed, skinned and heads removed
  • 1tbsp plain flour, for dusting
  • 150g samphire, washed thoroughly
  • 150g brown shrimps large pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1⁄4tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper) flakes, plus extra for dusting
  • 11⁄2tbsp flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • juice of 1⁄2 lemon

To serve

  • 1 unwaxed lemon, cut into 8 wedges

Method

To prepare a Dover sole, using a pair of scissors, cut the frilly cartilage off each side of the fish.

Place it on a chopping board and make a shallow score in the skin at the tail end. Sprinkle some salt on a plate, dip your dampened fingers in the salt, take hold of the skin and gently pull it off towards the head. Cut around the head and rinse out any innards.

Using a sharp knife, work as close to the bone as possible to remove the 4 fillets.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ Gas 6. Peel the potatoes, slice them very thinly with the mandolin and place in a bowl. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Melt 20g of the ghee and coat the potatoes. Tightly pack the slices upright in 4 greased muffin tins and roast for 40-50 minutes.

When soft and golden, ease them out of the tin and on to a sheet of foil. Gently wrap them up, turn off the oven and place them back in to keep warm.

Season the fish with sea salt and black pepper and dust lightly with flour, tapping off any excess.

Heat 15g of the ghee in a large non-stick frying pan and fry the fish on a medium heat for about 3 minutes on each side. Look to see if the underside is golden before turning the fish over.

Using a spatula, check to see if the fillets lift off the bone. Squeeze over some lemon juice. Place on a warmed plate and leave to rest for a few minutes.

Begin easing each fillet away from the bone. Without turning the fish over, take hold of the bone at the head end and gently pull it from the underside fillets. There will be a little frill with some bones but these can easily be pulled away from the rounded sides of the fillets. Cover the fish lightly with foil to keep warm.

Blanch the samphire in a pan of boiling water for about 1 minute until just tender and drain.

Heat the remaining ghee in a small pan. Add the brown shrimps, cayenne and pul biber flakes and mix together to warm the shrimp. Stir in the parsley.

On each plate, place one wafered potato and 2 of the Dover sole fillets. Divide the shrimp and samphire over the sole and dust the plates with some of the extra pul biber flakes. Serve with 2 lemon wedges on each plate.

Recipes and food styling: Linda Tubby. Photography and prop styling: Angela Dukes.
Dover sole with brown shrimp, samphire and roasted wafer potatoes
Recipes and food styling: Linda Tubby. Photography and prop styling: Angela Dukes.

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