After a working weekend, a nice supper was required. I had been craving fish for ages (clearly I'm not seasonally aligned), so I decided to pop to the fishmongers before they closed for the week and pick up some lemon sole. One of the great things about cooking fish is that eating fish itself is so guilt free, you can adorn it with naughtiness without feeling too bad. With that in mind, here is my recipe for lemon sole with caper berry butter, chips, asparagus and hollandaise sauce.
For the chips:
2 small maris piper potatoes or one very large one cut into chips (approx 1.5cm thickness)
3 tbsp flour
4 tbsp light olive oil
A handful of fresh chives finely chopped
Sea salt
The trick to these is to heat your oil in a roasting dish before placing the chips in the dish. Heat the oil at 2.20 degrees for approximately 20 minutes in a deep dish. In the meantime prepare your chips by rolling them in the flour, salt and chives. Once the oil is piping hot, remove the tray from the oven and place your chips in the dish. They are likely to spit so make sure you're wearing an apron and standing well back. These will need approximately 40 minutes, but I'd turn them after 20 to make sure they don't cook on one side.
The chips take by far the longest for this meal, as fish and asparagus cook in no time so in the meantime start making your cheats hollandaise. This recipe is based on a Delia cheat I came across a while ago and is a total god send for 2 reasons: 1. It's easy and impossible to curdle, and 2. It's about 1/4 as bad for you as real hollandaise. I'm never going back.
For the hollandaise:
200ml half fat
crème fraiche
3/4 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 desert spoon lemon juice
2 large or 3 medium egg yolks
2 knobs of butter
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp corn flour (regular flour will do if you don't have any)
Salt to taste
This is almost too easy. Place all your ingredients excluding the butter into a small saucepan and whisk over a medium heat. Allow the mixture to start simmering and continue whisking until it's thickened slightly. Set aside to cool for a couple of minutes, then season and taste. Add more lemon juice or white wine vinegar depending on your taste (I always add more vinegar), then add in the butter and whisk that in so you have an even consistency. At this point, I usually decant into a teacup or small serving bowl and cover so you end up with a sauce just above room temperature.
For the asparagus
I boiled a kettle of water and put it in my steamer with the asparagus before I embarked on the sole, as the fish will need constant attention once you've started cooking it, so you can't afford to be messing around with anything else at the time. The asparagus can sit in the steamer above the water until 2 minutes before you're ready to serve, at which point turn on the heat until they're cooked through but still crispy.
For the fish:
2 whole lemon sole
Caper berries (as many as you please)
A glug of white wine
Dusting of flour
Grated lemon rind to taste
Flour a surface that you don't mind getting fishy and heat your plates. If you can be bothered, grate a little lemon rind over it and add salt and pepper. Then lightly dust your whole soles in this mixture on both sides whilst heating a shallow frying pan and some light olive oil. Place your fish in the pan once it's hot. They will only need a few minutes per side and should be cooked until they're golden brown with the fish coming away from the bone easily. Remove the fish from the pan and plate it up, whilst pouring your white wine and capers into the pan and scraping any charred fish from the bottom. Reduce for a few minutes until you have a golden mixture and pour over your fish.
Plate up the chips and asparagus and serve. Allow people to add their own hollandaise, as some people will prefer it as a dip for the chips and green than over the fish. Personally, I can drink the stuff.
