SOLE MEUNIÈRE

SOURCE: JULIA CHILD. THE WAY TO COOK.

In her autobiography, My Life in France, Julia Child fervently reminisces about her first meal in France upon reaching Normandy’s majestic capital with her husband Paul. Rather than having Canard Rouennaise, Rouen’s traditional dish of partially roasted duck served with warm-pressed juices extracted from duck carcass, at Restaurant La Couronne, Paul ordered Sole Meunière as the main course of that meal. Attributing the flour coating to the miller’s wife or meunière, Sole Meunière is a whole or filleted Dover sole lightly dredged in flour and pan-fried in sputtering full-bodied butter to achieve a delicate and moist flesh wrapped by a thin and crispy brown film and bathed in a fragrant nutty sauce. Julia Child deemed this form of fish cookery as a revelation of the highest order, exposing her to the pleasures of the table and life.

Ingredients

6 skinless and boneless sole fillets, weighing 4-6 ounces/120-170 grams each and 3/8-inch/1 cm thick

Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

1/2 cup/60 grams all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons/60 grams clarified butter or ghee

3 tablespoons minced parsley

4-6 tablespoons/113-170 grams unsalted butter

1 whole lemon, one half cut into wedges and another half sliced into thin rounds

Specific Equipment

Chef’s knife

Frying pan

Paper towels

Serves 6

Instructions

1. Score the sole fillets by running the chef’s knife diagonally across the skin side of the fillets, inflicting shallow cuts onto the milky flesh of the fillets. Flatten the sole fillets by laying the flat of the chef’s knife parallel along the surface of the fillet and punching the flat surface of the knife using the fist.

2. Dry the sole fillets with paper towels. Season the sole fillets lightly with salt and pepper. Dredge both sides of the sole fillets with flour until completely coated.

3. Melt the clarified butter or ghee in a frying pan over high heat. When the butter is hot but not smoking and browning, shake off the excess flour from the sole fillets and immediately lay them into the hot butter, scored side up, without crowding them in the pan.

4. Sauté the sole fillets for 1 to 2 minutes. Turn the fillets carefully on the other side and continue sautéing for 1 to 2 minutes. The sole is done when the fillets do not resist from the touch of the finger. Transfer the fillets to a serving platter, and keep warm. Repeat this step until all flour-coated sole fillets are completely cooked.

5. Sprinkle each sole fillet with parsley. Wipe the pan, and set over high heat. Add the unsalted butter, and heat until bubbling. Pour over the fillets and let the parsley sizzle from the hot butter.

6. Sprinkle lemon juice over the sole fillets by squeezing the lemon wedges. Decorate the sole fillets with the thinly round slices of lemon.