fish

pan-fried lemon sole filets with salsa verde

servings
2

method

I just love the speed with which you can turn some sole fillets, tossed in flour, salt and pepper and fried in butter and olive oil, into a lovely little dinner with some nice greens and a squeeze of lemon juice. Put a few other side dishes with it if you feel a bit greedy – new potatoes, asparagus, broccoli – the ultimate fast food. Brilliant!

To make your salsa verde, finely chop the garlic and put in a bowl. Add the capers, gherkins, anchovies, parsley, basil and mint. Mix in the mustard and 1 or 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, then 3 good lugs of olive oil, adding more if needed to make a loose mixture. Balance the flavors with pepper and, if necessary, salt and a little more red wine vinegar.

Put your new potatoes into a large pan of salted, boiling water and cook for 12 minutes with the lid on. Put the sole filets into a clean plastic bag and season nicely with salt and pepper and a small handful of flour. Toss around until all the filets are well coated. Just before you start cooking the fish, put your broccoli into a colander, place on top of the potato pan, cover with the lid and steam for 4 minutes or so until cooked.

While the broccoli is steaming, heat a lug of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and quickly but carefully put your filets in so they all cook at the same time. Cook for a couple of minutes until beautifully golden, then, starting with the filet that went in first, turn them all over. Once you’ve done that, add the butter to color and flavor the fillets. Cook for no more than another 2 minutes. When the filets are golden on both sides, remove the pan from the heat. Wait for 20 seconds before squeezing in the juice of ½ the lemon and shaking the pan about, otherwise the lemon juice will burn black and ruin the whole thing.

Divide the fish filets between your plates with some of the juices from the pan. Drain the potatoes and divide them and the broccoli between the plates. Spoon the salsa verde over the fish and veg, put a lemon wedge beside each and tuck in – heaven!

• from Cook With Jamie

ingredients

for your salsa verde
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled
• a handful of capers, drained
• a handful of gherkins, drained and finely chopped
• 6 good-quality anchovy filets in oil, finely chopped
• 2 bunches of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and finely chopped
• a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• red wine vinegar
• good-quality extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 300g new potatoes, scrubbed or peeled
• 4 double sole fillets, pinboned
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• flour
• 300g purple sprouting broccoli
• olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 lemon

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1. by Maggie M on Sat 10 Dec 2011 @ 10:10

This was dead easy and 100% quick. Oh, and delicious. My question is about throwing potatoes into boiling water... I'd always been told to start with cold, something to do with the starch, I think. After a lifetime of following my Granny Sullivan's rule, I'm now confused.

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