Sole meuniere

The weekend usually brings along the farmers market in my city. Every Saturday the city center is filled with stands with fresh produce from around the Utrecht area. Beside the mushroom stand, one of my favourite buys is fresh fish. Few weeks ago I bought some beautiful Dover sole and since then I am totally hooked.  Every Sunday for the past few weeks I am preparing sole meuniere for dinner. I think this is one of the easiest and the best dishes ever. Served along with some sautéed veggies, some french fries and some garlic sauce this makes one of the most delicious meals out there.  According to Wikipedia meuniere refers to both a sauce and a method of preparation, primarily for fish. The word itself means “miller’s wife”. Thus to cook something à la meunière was to cook it by first dredging it in flour. A meunière sauce is a simple preparation — brown butter, chopped parsley, and lemon — and the name refers to its unelaborate rustic nature.

sole Meuniere

1 cup flour

6 fresh sole fillets

butter

salt

pepper

lemon juice

freshly chopped parsley

In a large skillet heat about 2 tablespoons of butter until it starts browning slightly (clarifies), this will give it a nutty flavour. Mix flour, salt and pepper and dredge the fish fillets through the mixture. Place 2 sole fillets in the hot skillet and lower slightly the heat. Cook the fillets for about 2-3 minutes and carefully turn on the other side with a spatula.  Add fresh lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper (if needed).

Repeat the same procedure for the remaining fillets and serve immediately. 

Trips

I didn’t update my blog for a while and I missed the blogging and the cooking for all these weeks. I replaced them with my other favourite activity – travelling.

 First I went back home to Romania. I really love this place, gives me so much energy, it reminds me of who I am and somehow I always get back optimistic and happy.

And every time I go back there is a little culinary experience to enjoy. This time was a delicious BBQ that included chicken, pork meat and some delicious traditional sausages called Carnati de Plescoi. The recipe for these sausages is kind of national best kept secret. The sausages are so spicy and rich that you really need to cool down with some nice local red wine :-).  

After the trip to Romania I had to go to Oslo and Paris, both of them great culinary experiences. In both places I had great fish dishes, so back home I got inspired and I cooked some fish again.

tuna with wasabi flavoured potato puree, asparagus tips, red beet and white carrot chips 

fresh tuna steak

4-5 asparagus tips

4-5 potatoes

one red beet

white and orange carrot

Start by boiling the potatoes for the puree. Mash them and strain them to make sure there are no lumps left in it. Mix the mashed potatoes with a bit of milk, wasabi and salt. Meanwhile, roast the red beet drizzled with some olive oil in some aluminium foil in the oven. It takes about an hour, depending on the size of the beet. When it is cooked throughout, let it cool down, peel it and the slice it thinly. Prepare the white carrot chips just the same way you would make potatoes chips 🙂

For the tuna steak, pat it dry in a kitchen towel and then season it with salt, pepper and then coat both sides of the tuna with white and black sesame seeds.

Heat non-stick skillet to high and add some sunflower oil to the pan. When the pan is hot place the tuna stake in it and sear it for 1 – 2 minutes on each side. 

ATTENTION: DO NOT OVER COOK THE TUNA !!!  otherwise it becomes chewey and it looses its amazing taste. 

The sunny side of life

Finally, there are signs that the spring is coming – the sun showed up. You can see happy faces everywhere, lots of gorgeous flowers and you can hear the songs of cheerful birds every morning. I have no clue if it is because of the sun, but I feel happy today.

And because of it I decided to make a sunny salad inspired by a recipe I came across in the Nobu Now book. Well, I adapted it bit, but the result was great and I think very pretty. I think it makes a great appetizer or a nice salad if you size up a bit the quantities.

smoked salmon salad with swiss chard and deep fried rice noodles

rice noodles or mihoen (to replace the finely shredded filo pastry – I like the deep-fried rice noodles better)

swiss chard (the original recipe called for baby spinach – I am in my “I don’t like raw spinach phase “so I replaced it with the swiss chard, but I guess any green stuff will do)

smoked salmon (sea bass originally)

salmon roe (ok, ok – the is the only original element from the recipe)

thai sweet chilli sauce (yuzu dressing in Nobu’s version)

Start by deep-frying the noodles in hot oil, take care to take them out in 30 seconds or so, they get done very fast. Arrange the chard or the greens on a plate , place the noodles on top of the greens and on top of them place the smoked salmon. Drizzle some of the sauce around the salad and top everything with salmon roe.