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Lemon sole with parsley sauce
Serves 2 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 3 slices of brown bread, crusts removed, cut into 5mm cubes
- olive oil, for drizzling and frying
- 2tbsp small capers in brine, drained and patted dry
- 1 lemon
- 2 lemon sole (or cod, John Dory or any other robust, white fish), skinned both sides and trimmed
- plain flour, for dusting
- 50g butter
- 4tbsp curly-leaf parsley, finely chopped
For the parsley sauce
- 1 bunch curly-leaf parsley, leaves picked from the stems and stems discarded
- 25g butter, plus a little more for smoothing out the sauce
- 2 banana shallots, finely diced
- 100ml white wine
- 100ml double cream
For the chard
- 2 large Swiss chard stalks
- 75ml water
- 25g butter
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/ Gas 4. Place the cubes of bread on a baking tray. Drizzle with a little olive oil and bake until they are toasted and crisp. Remove from the oven and season. Warm 1-2cm of olive oil in the bottom of a deep, medium-sized saucepan until hot. Carefully lower in the capers on a slotted spoon and cook for a few minutes until they are crisp and start to pop. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Trim the ends from the lemon and stand upright on a chopping board. With a small, sharp knife work your way around the fruit, cutting away the peel and outer membrane. Cut the fleshy segments out of the inner membrane. Squeeze the inner membrane’s juice into a glass and reserve it for cooking the fish. Lay the lemon segments on a roasting tray and blowtorch until they are charred and blackened – this will give them a lovely, toasted taste.
Next, make the parsley sauce. Prepare a bowl of iced water and put it by the hob. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and blanch the parsley leaves until they’re just wilted, about 5 seconds. Drain and immediately plunge into the iced water to refresh, then drain and squeeze out the excess water with some kitchen paper. Chop roughly. Warm the butter in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the shallots and sweat over a medium-low heat until soft, stirring from time to time. Pour on the wine and bring to the boil. Reduce to a glaze then pour in the cream.
Bring to the boil, add the blanched parsley, stir and season. Remove from the heat and immediately whizz in a blender or food processor until smooth – you may need to add an extra knob of butter to help smooth out the sauce. Pass through a fine sieve, cover and keep warm, or store in the fridge until needed if you are making the sauce a few hours ahead of time.
To prepare the chard, tear the green leafy part from the top of the stalks and finely slice them into strips. Portion up the stalks into pieces about 4cm long and trim any brown bits from them. Put the water and butter together in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Add a pinch of salt and the chard stalks. Turn the heat down and gently cook them until they just start to go soft, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the thinly sliced leaves and cook until just wilted; this should take no more than a minute. Drain, transfer to a serving dish and keep warm.
Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Dust the fish on both sides with flour and shake off any excess. Place the fish in the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, until they get a crisp, golden brown crust. Flip the fish over and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Drop in the butter and when it has melted, baste the fish with it. Add the reserved lemon juice to the pan and baste the fish a little more. Remove the fish from the pan and throw in the chopped parsley, croutons, capers and lemon segments. Season.
Heat up the parsley sauce and drizzle it onto two warmed plates. Place the lemon sole on top, then pour on the garnishes from the fish pan. Serve immediately with the chard alongside.
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