Sole Sister

Yesterday when we were at the shops, there were some beautiful Limande (Lemon Sole) so we pick a decent sized one and pottered home to prepare it. I thought about it for a bit, but the truth is I love flat fish baked whole, we had some leeks that needed to be used and so decided to combine the Eliza Acton/Rick Stein method with the ingredients we had.

As you may know, I am a great fan of Rick Stein’s dishes. I recently saw a re-run of a recipe he did with Dover Sole which was actually and old English Eliza Acton recipe. The original recipe is a great read and Rick had adapted it for modern times. Such is life, we have put our own spin on it too…

I’ll be the first to admit that while the recipe is fantastic and ridiculously quick and easy to do, it is richly clad with calories. So, it was Saturday night when we had it and we allowed ourselves the treat, knowing we shall have to work up a sweat on our walk after.

Serves 2

1 Medium to large Lemon Sole – or medium dover sole, cleaned,( We took the head off that is optional)

1 large leek, cut lengthways, then sliced across to form half moons.

A pinch of ground mace

A pinch of ground cayenne

A pinch of salt and a twist of white pepper

A knob of butter

2 cups of double cream

Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 230 then using a pair of scissors trim around the edge of the fish, take off the tail and remove the head if you like.

Make an incision at the base of the tail on the dark skin side of the fish, hold the tail in one hand and grasp the skin with some jay cloth or kitchen paper in the other, now pull the skin back to remove it. ( This can be tough to do on very fresh fish).

Lightly butter a baking dish, season the fish with the salt and pepper, mace and cayenne and place into the dish.

Soften the leeks in a little butter, not browning them, just until they start to wilt down. Scatter them over the fish and now cover the fish and leeks with the cream.

Pop the dish into the oven for 12 to 15 minutes ( ours took a bit longer as our oven here is not very reliable!) until the cream has thickened and is bubbling away. Check the fish is cooked by pushing a small spoon against it and if it comes away from the bone and is no longer translucent it is ready.

When you are happy that the fish is cooked, carefully lift it out on to your serving plate.

To the cream and leeks left in the oven dish, add the juice of half a lemon and a little parsley. Stir the sauce well and check the seasoning. Then pour the sauce over the fish.