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This classic French sauce is a very popular way to serve flat fish. Something cooked à la meunière, literally ‘in the style of the miller’s wife’, is dredged in flour before being fried … as the miller’s wife always had plenty of flour on hand. The trick to making brown butter is to make it really brown, without burning it – so be brave and push it just past the point where you think it’s done, then quickly stop the cooking with a squeeze of lemon juice. Boiled new potatoes or plenty of crusty bread are a great way to soak up all the delicious nutty butter.
INGREDIENTS:
½ cup plain flour
Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 x 180g fillets New Zealand Sole, skin on, bones removed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
150g salted butter
1 small lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
METHOD:
Combine flour, salt and pepper in a large shallow bowl. Toss the fish in the flour, coating well, and shake off any excess.
Heat oil and 50g of the butter in a large frying pan. Add fish, skin-side down, and cook for 2 minutes then turn and cook the other side for a further minute or so, until golden.
Remove the fish to a warmed plate and wipe out the pan with kitchen paper. Add remaining butter and place over a high heat, cooking it until it turns brown. Add lemon juice and parsley, swirl the pan for a few seconds, pour butter over the fish and serve.
ALTERNATIVE SPECIES:
Black Sole, John Dory, Flounder, Lemon Tongue Sole, Mirror Dory, New Zealand Lemon Sole, New Zealand Brill, Place, Sand Flounder, Yellowbelly Flounder.