Dover Sole...

In my quest to eat more fish and seafood, here is one of the simplest sole recipes I could find. Dover Sole is regarded the Rolls-Royce of the fish world. It is the tastiest variety of the sole family with its firm, deliciously delicate flesh. Dover sole has a thick but flat body with a flesh that tastes clean, light and sweet. It has long been a favorite in French cuisine, but it is also an American classic and a fish that is popular in most restaurants.

Sole is a dream to work with in the kitchen, holding together well during cooking. The darker skin can be peeled off with little effort to reveal a thick flesh that can be easily filleted. It is incredibly versatile and can be baked, fried, poached or grilled.

This is a deliciously light dish but packed full of flavors. The capers that I added brings a nice bit of acidity along with the wine without over-powering the rest of the dish. I sautéed some fresh spinach to act as a bed for the sole; which also helps to absorb the sauce.



Baked Dover Sole

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter
2 Dover sole fillets, about 12 oz each
½ cup white wine
¼ cup capers, drained
1½ pound fresh baby spinach
pinch cayenne pepper
chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 425 degree F. Butter a roasting pan so that you can lay the Dover sole side by side.

Pour the wine over the fish and dot any remaining butter over the top. Season with a twist or two of fresh ground black pepper.

Bake for about 20 minutes - the fish should just come away from the bone.
Remove and keep warm.

While the fish is cooking, sauté the spinach in a little olive oil until wilted.

When you have removed the fish from the roasting pan, add the capers and cayenne pepper to the cooking juices. Heat until the capers are warmed through.

Stir in the parsley and then serve the Dover sole over the sautéed spinach with some buttered Fingerling potatoes ~ ladling the caper sauce over the Dover sole.

This is the simplest of sole recipes - you could substitute any flat fish here - try flounder, lemon sole, tilapia - anything really.

Serves 2

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George’s notes:

• Dover sole is the most delectable of the flatfish, which is quite surprising once you know that it spends most of its life buried shallowly in the sand gazing up at its prey, which consists of sea worms and tiny marine organisms of the sea bed. Its gaze, of course, is another weird thing. Like all flatfish it begins life as a regular little fry, with eyes on either side of its spine, and ends up as an adult with both eyes on one side and its mouth rather askew.
• The salted and pickled caper bud is often used as a seasoning or garnish. Capers are a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine, especially Italian. The mature fruit of the caper shrub is also prepared similarly, and marketed as caper berries.
• Capers are pickled or boiled and preserved in jars with brine cf. caper buds. Caper leaves are excellent in salads and in fish dishes. Dried caper leaves are also used as a substitute for rennet in the manufacturing of high quality cheese.