There are various types of sole, but Dover is the very best. The fish can be found from the Mediterranean right up to the north of Scotland, not just in the Channel, and it acquired the adjective ‘Dover’ because the southern port used to be the one most associated with sole supplies coming into London.
This recipe is here because it exemplifies how simple some of our most classic recipes are. Try to cook it on the bone (most things are better cooked on the bone), but prepare it well first (see below). Sole were once filleted at the table for you in old-fashioned restaurants, and in my capacity as Chairman of the Academy of Culinary Arts, I have been helping to bring back some of those old skills we seem to have lost. In this I am very grateful for the work done by Silvano Giraldin, restaurant manager of the Gavroche, and Sergio Rebecchi of Chez Nico, who have been passing on their vast knowledge to a new generation of chefs and waiters.
ingredients
Serves 4
4 x 450g (1 lb) whole Dover sole
55g (2 oz) plain flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
55g (2 oz) unsalted butter, melted
2 lemons, halved
Parsley butter
115g (4 oz) unsalted butter
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
METHOD
Make the parsley butter first. Mix the butter with the lemon juice and parsley, and some salt and pepper. Roll up in dampened greaseproof paper to a sausage shape and put in the freezer until needed.Preheat the grill. To clean the soles, remove the black skin first. Dip the tail into boiling water then, using the back of a knife, scrape from the tail end towards the body to loosen a piece of the skin. Hold the fish down and grip the skin piece in a cloth. Pull firmly and all will come away.
Turn the fish over and carefully remove the scales from the white-skinned side. Remove the head by chopping it off (optional), then cut the side fins away using scissors. Wash and dry well. Season the flour with some salt and pepper, and dip the sole, skinned side only, into it. Shake off the excess flour and place on a grilling sheet, floured side up. Brush with melted butter, and grill on one side for about 5-6 minutes. If necessary, turn over, but test for doneness first. Do this by pushing your finger on to the backbone: if the meat gives sufficiently for you to feel bone, the sole is ready. Take the parsley butter from the freezer and, using a warm knife, cut into thin slices. Lay two slices on each sole and allow to melt naturally. Serve with half a lemon and new potatoes.
PS - You probably don’t need to know this, but lemon soles, although fine fish, are not true soles – because they are ‘left-handed’. True soles like Dovers are dextral or right-handed, because they have both eyes on the right-hand side of their heads. Now you know. In restaurants sole are grilled on salamanders, a bottom heat like a barbecue, rather than a top heat. This marks the fish with grid marks, and if you would like to recreate this at home, heat a metal skewer over a flame. Mark the fish before you cook, to scorch the flour. You can concoct different savoury butters to accompany grilled fish. Use anchovies, oysters, garlic or tarragon, for instance.