- 4 minutes ago
Learn how to make Sole Meunière with master French chef Alexia Duchêne. Alexia breaks down every step behind this classic French dish she grew up eating, from preparing and carving the fish to making a rich brown butter, lemon, parsley, and caper sauce.
Feeling inspired? Follow this recipe to make your own at home: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/dover-sole-meuniere
Feeling inspired? Follow this recipe to make your own at home: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/dover-sole-meuniere
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00:00Today we're making sole meunier, which is really a classic French dish that is reminiscent of my
00:06childhood. It's a Dover sole that is basted in butter with a lemon and parsley sauce. It's buttery,
00:12it's soft, it's decadent. So to start off, the only thing we're going to do to this fish
00:18is take off the skin. And also the traditional recipe is that you coat the fish with flour
00:23directly on the skin. You need to take a knife, really just here around the tail. You want to
00:30cut the skin layer and not really the meat layer because you're just looking to take the skin off
00:34with the hands. So the knife I'm using to prepare the sole, it's called a filet de sole, which means
00:40the sole filet, that kind of like bounce. Basically you want this knife, because it's a flat fish,
00:47to kind of put pressure and go get all of the meat without leaving anything behind. You want to
00:53take your tea towel, take the skin, and as soon as you have the first layer that is removed,
00:59actually you can try and do it without the towel and just pull. And the towel, you use it to
01:04just
01:05hold your fish. When you're pulling around the head area, you really want to take your time just
01:09because the head is so beautiful, you don't want to not have it in the presentation. So you see it's
01:14completely done and we're just going to do the same thing on the other side. The over sole, you can
01:20find
01:20it at your fishmongers. I would say a grocery store is probably not going to have dover sole.
01:24If you can't find dover sole, there are many different fish that you can do the same recipe with.
01:29Fluke is a great example, skate wings, even cod. I mean, those quite meaty fish that have this
01:36structure that make it perfect to accompany such a rich sauce. At the fishmongers, you can buy it
01:41deboned and sear the filet without like the hassle of preparing everything, but it doesn't have the same
01:46texture. Everything that is cooked on the bone is better. There's like a better heat distribution.
01:52There is a better moisture that is sticking inside. And here we have perfectly cleaned fish.
02:02So I just need to take all of the guts out. When you cook the liver and like all of
02:07the insides,
02:07it can get a bit bitter and it can actually give the taste to the flesh that is stuck to
02:12it.
02:12So you're looking to do a very small incision and kind of just like taking your finger like a hook
02:19and just making sure that you're removing everything. You don't want to go with knife or
02:23anything because you're going to ruin what you've worked so hard to make, which is a perfect fish
02:29with no bruises. So the sole is ready. Now, because it's a fish that cooks extremely fast, we're talking
02:36like three minutes. You need to get everything ready. So the sauce Meunière, basically it's butter
02:43that is melted that you cook your fish in the pan and then you add components at the end. The
02:48very
02:48classic way is just parsley and lemon juice. Extremely simple. I like to add a touch of capers just for
02:56more brininess. This recipe is meant to be broken and to do anything and everything you want. Parsley,
03:03we don't want the stem. We just want the beautiful leaves. Solmeunière means miller's wife and
03:11basically it's a sauce that is called like that because of the most important component which is
03:16flour. When I chop parsley, I like to like bring them all together just to bring a bit of density.
03:21I feel like it's easier to chop. It's also faster. And now the capers. I'm not going to put too
03:27much,
03:28but just enough to have this nice tang in the sauce and a bit of a bite. Because it's a
03:33delicate dish,
03:35you can't really afford to have something that overpowers. So chopping it gives a nice even balance
03:42in terms of texture. For the garnish, I think it's great to go on something a bit lighter just because
03:47there is a lot of butter in the recipe. So I chose some green asparagus from the market because it's
03:51seasonal. This technique that's very important when you prepare it is basically there is like this part
03:55that's called the wood and it's extremely woody, it's hard to eat, it's all very pleasant. If you want
04:00to make it nice and for example trim everything, because you know you want nice presentation, you do
04:05that and then all of these things you keep them. So we have our asparagus, we have our trims that
04:10we
04:10will keep. This will be cooked while we do the sole. So now I have my water, I have my
04:16pan for the
04:17Dover sole, I just need to coat the fish in flour. Pretty simple, AP flour, bottom of a tray,
04:24I'm going to salt my fish for that, some kosher salt. The salt is really for flavor, we're not curing
04:30the fish or anything like that. The side that's salted goes into the flour so we have the surface
04:37to salt the other side. The flour really brings something quite special to the fish because it brings
04:43this crispiness but it also binds the sauce. The flour is also here to kind of create a protective
04:48layer, I feel for the fish not to dry out. So you're looking just for like a light coating of
04:53flour, you're
04:54not looking for something that's too thick, so you want to tap it just to make sure you're not getting
05:00like excess flour. So we're done with the fish and leave it on the side. So now it's time to
05:06cook the fish,
05:07warm the pan. You want like a pretty like medium high heat just because you want a nice crust and
05:15because the fish is going to cook for such a short amount of time you don't really want to cook
05:21it low
05:21and soft. This pan is really a sole pan. It was made for the long fish and in France you
05:30can actually see
05:31even bigger ones that kind of like go all the way here for the bigger salts. You want to mix
05:38butter
05:38with an oil just to kind of blend it so it doesn't burn as fast. We're not looking for frying
05:43here so
05:44we're not looking for the biggest you know smoke point oil but you're looking for something that is
05:50neutral in taste and that will blend quite well with the butter. This in France we call it like
05:59which means the butter that is singing and it's really this noise that is just like a melody,
06:05the butter melody. You want some high quality french butter if you can. French butter has a
06:10quite high fat content so it makes anything delicious. So what you're looking here is to base this fish.
06:20I have a spoon when you have spoons that are not too fragile like I actually bend them you see
06:25that the
06:26butter is like browning and that's exactly what you want. You don't want burnt butter but you do want
06:30this browning this nuttiness in the butter will bring so much flavor. Browning butter is is basically
06:37toasting the milk solids and bring this like nice nuttiness to the butter in terms of taste and it's
06:42just for me like pure love you know. Basting ensures that the top layer is not staying cold and it's
06:49actually also cooking and it's very important that you add more butter just to keep the butter at the perfect
06:55temperature. You're looking at I would say a minute and a half per side depending on how big it is.
07:02That's exactly what you want you know it's like butter that's singing that's like very foamy. Some pans
07:09are not going to be at the right size so you'll have a bit of the tail that is not
07:14fully in the pan.
07:15The tail is so thin it's it's already pretty much cooked. Just make sure you just coat it with the
07:20butter
07:21and it'll be just fine. Now we're going to flip it.
07:28No spatula. When you're touching the fish you just want to see how cooked it is
07:32so I feel the flesh and seeing if it's bouncy if it still has resistance. You can start seeing the
07:39flesh like getting apart and that means that the fish is is pretty much done. When I was a kid
07:45like
07:45eating those little scraps that fall off that was the best bit. It's bones but they're kind of fried
07:53and they're so small that nothing will happen to you and they're so good. It's like a little treat.
07:59I love doing it the rustic way. I feel like you're really caramelizing everything. Sometimes in restaurants
08:05that are a bit more fancy you know they'll turn the sides and make it really like beautiful but I
08:10feel
08:11like when you're cooking at home all the nooks and crannies and all the places that can actually
08:16caramelize is what brings all the flavor. I think we're there. We're going to take our fish,
08:22put it onto our cutting board, keep all the delicious
08:29little shrimps and our sauce is going to be built with whatever's left here.
08:37butter here. See it's like perfectly foamy. There's also a bit of the residual from the flour on the
08:46fish that will brown nicely. So here we have a perfectly brown butter. The idea is to stop the
08:54process of the butter cooking right now and that is going to be done with a lemon. The coldness and
08:59the acidity of the lemon will completely stop the cooking and make sure that we have something that's
09:03nutty and not bitter. If you cook the butter too long basically the milk solids that caramelize when
09:10you make brown butter are going to start going dark kind of black and this will really bring this
09:15bitterness that's not really what you're looking for. So this sauce is done. I'm going to add
09:22parsley, some capers. We're just looking to combine and to make sure everything is balanced
09:29which it is. That's it. The sauce is done. The water is boiling. I'm just going to cook the green
09:34asparagus and then I have time to prep the fish. Straight into the water, salt it and then now it's
09:41time for fish prep. The most important thing when you're carving anything is to know the structure.
09:46So as soon as you know the structure of what you're cutting it's quite easy. So here we're cutting a
09:52flatfish that has basically four fillets and the only thing we're going to do is starting on the sides
09:58just making sure we're removing all the bones. Like that. Push it to the side. That's it. Then we're
10:09going to go in the center, make an incision, take the tail off and then here it can be done
10:17with a knife
10:17but also with a spoon. So when it's perfectly cooked you just want to lightly press basically.
10:25You're not looking for any sort of harsh movement. I'm going to do it with a knife because I'm a
10:31chef
10:32but at home do it with a spoon and you're looking to just here do that. I didn't cut anything.
10:41I just
10:42use the knife to kind of push. I take all the scraps things that are not perfect. I make sure
10:47all the bones
10:47are out. If you're pushing too hard and your fish looks like mush it's going to be delicious mush
10:53because the sauce is going to be so good that it doesn't really matter. At the end of the day
10:57taste
10:57is all that matters. Of course you want a beautiful presentation. Take your time. Don't forget that the
11:01fish can go cold and you can warm it back up. Make sure you always put the bones on the
11:06side so you
11:07don't mix things. I'm scraping everything. It looks beautiful. I didn't leave any meat on the bone.
11:15And the second part is actually even easier because you're just going to remove the tail
11:20and the bone from the center. And this is more of a with your hand. So basically you want one
11:26hand
11:26to take the bones up and you want your other finger to hold the fillets and making sure they're not
11:33bruised. You can break the bone and like continue. And actually that you have a touch of resistance
11:43shows that it's perfectly cooked because if it was overcooked it would be like completely off the bone.
11:49And then you just take your knife. You make sure you always go on the sides and take all of
11:55the
11:55tiny tiny bones that can come out. Our asparagus are pretty much there. I can feel it to the touch
12:03but you always get confirmation. Putting your knife through and it's coming out. It's coming out.
12:10It's perfect. When you cook it too much you have something that's fibrous that is not as interesting
12:16and you lose that fresh feel that you're looking especially with a rich butter sauce. I'm just
12:22going to put this fillet here. You stack them on top of each other because it's traditional. Basically
12:28you're looking to recreate the sole without the bone. And now you have the warm sauce. Put them back
12:37to fillets warmed up. And now it's time to plate. Reconstructing the fish and the plate.
12:46Asparagus on each side. Just a touch of dill on top for brightness and freshness. And then we finish with
12:55the sauce. Generous on the fillet. It's decadent. You want to put a big amount of butter. That is
13:05what Dover Soul Meunière is all about. And then to finish there's this thing that I love that a lot
13:11of
13:11restaurants do. They actually put some cheesecloth on top of a lemon and then a touch of twine. Cheese
13:18cloth is basically what cheesemongers use when they're putting cheese for the way to get out.
13:23All the liquids in the cheese. So it kind of like densifies. You can do that with kind of any
13:28cloth.
13:29It doesn't really matter. But this is what French restaurants do. So the cheesecloth technique with
13:35the lemon. So that when you squeeze there is zero seed. Touch of salt to finish. A bit of black
13:44pepper
13:45lightly. And here you have it. Best part is obviously the sauce.
13:52It's so flavorful but simple. The butter is really the main component. It coats all your mouth. The
14:00parsley and the capers bring freshness with a lemon. The fish is perfectly cooked. It just makes me happy.
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