How a French Chef Makes France's Most Famous Fish Dish

[light gentle music]

Today we're making sole meuniere,

which is really a classic French dish

that is reminiscent of my childhood.

It's a Dover sole that is basted in butter

with a lemon and parsley sauce.

It's buttery, it's soft, it's decadent.

So to start off, the only thing we're gonna do to this fish

is take off the skin.

And also the traditional recipe is that you coat

the fish with flour directly on the skin.

You need to take a knife really just here around the tail.

You want to cut the skin layer and already the meat layer

because you're just looking to

take the skin off with the hands.

So the knife I'm using to prepare the sole

is called a filet sole, which means the sole filet,

that kind of, like, bounce.

Basically, you want this knife

because it's a flatfish to kind of put pressure

and go get all of the meat without leaving anything behind.

You wanna take your tea towel, take the skin,

and as soon as you have the first layer that's removed,

actually you can try and do it without the towel

and just pull.

And the towel, you use it to just hold your fish

because when you're pulling around the head area,

you really wanna take your time

just because the head is so beautiful;

you don't want to not have it in the presentation.

So you see it's completely done

and we're just gonna do the same thing on the other side.

Dover sole, you can find it at your fishmongers.

I would say a grocery store

is probably not gonna have Dover sole.

If you can find Dover sole, there are many different fish

that you can do the same recipe with.

Fluke is a great example, skate wings, even cod.

I mean, those quite meaty fish that have this structure

that make it perfect to accompany such a rich sauce.

At the fishmongers, you can buy it deboned

and sear the filet without, like, the hassle

of preparing everything,

but it doesn't have the same texture.

Everything that is cooked on the bone is better.

There's, like, a better heat distribution.

There is a better moisture that is sticking inside.

And here we have perfectly cleaned fish.

So I just need to take all of the guts out.

When you cook the liver and, like, all of the insides,

it can get a bit bitter, and it can actually give the taste

to the flesh that is stuck to it.

So you're looking to do a very small incision

and kind of just, like, taking your finger like a hook

and just making sure that you're removing everything.

You don't wanna go with knife or anything

because you're gonna ruin what you've worked

so hard to make, which is a perfect fish with no bruises.

So the sole is ready.

Now, because it's a fish that cooks extremely fast,

we're talking, like, three minutes,

you need to get everything ready.

So the sauce meuniere, basically, it's butter

that is melted that you cook your fish in the pan,

and then you add components at the end.

The very classic way is just parsley and lemon juice.

Extremely simple.

I like to add a touch of capers just for more brininess.

This recipe is meant to be broken

and to do anything and everything you want.

Parsley, we don't want the stem.

We just want beautiful leaves.

Sole meuniere means miller's wife,

and basically it's a sauce that is called like that

because of the most important component, which is flour.

When I chop parsley, I like to, like,

bring them all together just to bring a bit of density.

I feel like it's easier to chop.

It's also faster.

And now the capers.

I'm not gonna put too much,

but just enough to have this nice tang in the sauce

and a bit of a bite.

Because it's a delicate dish,

you can't really afford to have something that overpowers.

So chopping it gives a nice even balance

in terms of texture.

For the garnish,

I think it's great to go on something a bit lighter

just because there is a lot of butter in the recipe.

So I chose some green asparagus from the market

because it's seasonal.

This technique that's very important when you prepare it.

Is basically, there is, like,

this part that's called the wood,

and it's extremely woody, it's hard to eat,

it's not very pleasant.

If you wanna make it nice, and for example, trim everything

because, you know, you want nice presentation,

you do that and then all of these things, you keep them.

So we have our asparagus,

we have our trims that we will keep.

This will be cooked while we do the sole.

So now I have my water, I have my pan for the Dover sole.

I just need to coat the fish in flour.

Pretty simple.

AP flour, bottom of a tray.

Gonna salt my fish.

For that, some kosher salt.

Salt is really for flavor.

We're not curing the fish or anything like that.

The side that's salted goes into the flour

so we have the surface to salt the other side.

The flour really brings something quite special to the fish

because it brings this crispiness,

but it also binds the sauce.

The flour is also here to kind of create a protective layer.

I feel for the fish not to dry out.

So you're looking just for, like, a light coating of flour.

You're not looking for something that's too thick.

So you want to tap it

just to make sure you're not getting, like, excess flour.

So we're done with the fish and leave it on the side.

So now it's time to cook the fish.

Warm the pan.

You want, like, a pretty, like, medium-high heat

just because you want a nice crust,

and because the fish is gonna cook

for such a short amount of time,

you don't really want to cook it low and slow.

This pan is really a sole pan.

It was made for the long fish,

and in France you can actually see even bigger ones

that kind of, like,

go all the way here for the bigger soles.

You want to mix butter with an oil just to kind of blend it

so it doesn't burn as fast.

We're not looking for frying here,

so we're not looking for the biggest,

you know, smoke point oil,

but you're looking for something that is neutral in taste

and that will blend quite well with the butter.

[pan sizzling]

[pan scraping]

This in France, we call it, like, le beurre qui chante,

which means the butter that is singing,

and it's really this noise that is just like a melody,

the butter melody.

You want some high-quality French butter if you can.

French butter has a quite high fat contents

so it makes anything delicious.

So what you're looking here is to baste this fish.

I have a spoon.

When you have spoons that are not too fragile,

I can actually bend them.

You see that the butter is, like, browning,

and that's exactly what you want.

You don't want burnt butter, but you do want this browning.

This nuttiness in the butter will bring so much flavor.

Browning butter is basically toasting the milk solids

and bring this, like, nice nuttiness to the butter

in terms of taste.

And it's just for me, like, pure love, you know?

Basting ensures that the top layer is not staying cold,

and it's actually also cooking,

and it's very important that you add more butter

just to keep the butter at the perfect temperature.

You're looking at, I would say,

a minute and a half per side, depending on how big it is.

That's exactly what you want, you know?

It's, like, butter that's singing, that's, like, very foamy.

Some pans are not gonna be at the right size,

so you'll have a bit of the tail

that is not fully in the pan.

The tail is so thin, it's already pretty much cooked.

Just make sure you just coat it with the butter,

and it'll be just fine.

Now we're gonna flip it.

[pan sizzling]

Whoo! No spatula.

When you're touching the fish,

you just wanna see how cooked it is.

So I feel the flesh and seeing if it's bouncy,

if it still has resistance, you can start seeing the flesh,

like, getting apart,

and that means that the fish is pretty much done.

When I was a kid, like, eating those little

scraps that fall off, that was the best bit.

It's bones, but they're kind of fried,

and they're so small that nothing will happen to you,

and they're so good.

It's like a little treat.

I love doing it the rustic way.

I feel like you're really caramelizing everything.

Sometimes in restaurants that are a bit more fancy,

you know, they'll trim the sides

and make it really, like, beautiful.

But I feel like when you're cooking at home,

all the nooks and crannies

and all the places that can actually caramelize

is what brings all the flavor.

I think we're there.

We're gonna take our fish, put it onto our cutting board,

keep all the delicious

little trims.

And our sauce is gonna be built with whatever's left here.

[light whimsical music]

Butter here.

[pan scraping]

See, it's, like, perfectly foamy.

There's also a bit of the residual

from the flour on the fish that will brown lightly.

So here we have a perfectly brown butter.

The idea is to stop the process

of the butter cooking right now,

and that is gonna be done with the lemon.

The coldness and the acidity of the lemon

will completely stop the cooking

and make sure that we have something that's nutty

and not bitter.

If you cook the butter too long, basically the milk solids

that caramelize when you make brown butter

are gonna start going dark, kind of black.

And this will really bring this bitterness

that's not really what you're looking for.

[pan scraping]

So this sauce is done.

I'm gonna add parsley,

[pan rattles]

some capers.

We're just looking to combine

and to make sure everything is balanced, which it is.

That's it. Sauce is done.

The water's boiling.

I'm just gonna cook the green asparagus,

and then I have time to prep the fish.

Straight into the water, salt it.

And then now it's time for fish prep.

The most important thing when you're carving anything

is to know the structure.

So as soon as you know the structure of what you're cutting,

it's quite easy.

So here we're cutting a flatfish

that has basically four filets.

And the only thing we're gonna do is starting on the sides,

just making sure we're removing all the bones

like that.

Push it to the side.

That's it.

Then we're gonna go in the center,

make an incision, take the tail off.

And then here it can be done with a knife,

but also with a spoon.

So when it's perfectly cooked,

you just wanna lightly press basically.

You're not looking for any sort of harsh movement.

I'm gonna do it with a knife because I'm a chef.

But at home, do it with a spoon.

And you're looking to just here, do that.

I didn't cut anything.

I just use the knife to kind of push.

I take all the scraps, things that are not perfect.

I make sure all the bones are out.

If you're pushing too hard and your fish looks like mush,

it's gonna be delicious mush

because the sauce is gonna be so good

that it doesn't really matter.

At the end of the day, taste is all that matters.

Of course you want a beautiful presentation.

Take your time.

Don't forget that the fish can go cold

and you can warm it back up.

Make sure you always put the bones on the side

so you don't mix things.

I'm scraping everything.

It looks beautiful.

I didn't leave any meat on the bone.

And the second part is actually even easier

because you're just gonna remove the tail

and the bone from the center.

And this is more of a with your hand.

So basically you want one hand to take the bones up,

and you want your other finger to hold the filets,

and making sure they're not bruised.

You can break the bone and, like, continue.

And actually, that you have a touch of resistance

shows that it's perfectly cooked.

Because if it was overcooked, it would be, like,

completely off the bone.

And then you just take your knife,

you make sure you always go on the sides

and take all of the tiny, tiny bones that can come out.

Our asparagus are pretty much there.

I can feel it to the touch, but you always get confirmation

putting your knife through, and it's coming out.

It's coming out.

It's perfect.

When you cook it too much,

you have something that's fibrous,

that is not as interesting,

and you lose that fresh feel that you're looking

especially with a rich butter sauce.

I'm just gonna put this filet here.

You stack them on top of each other

because it's traditional.

Basically, you're looking to recreate the sole

without the bone.

And now you have the warm sauce;

put them back.

So filet is warmed up.

And now it's time to plate,

reconstructing the fish on the plate.

Asparagus on each side.

Just the touch of dill on top for brightness,

bit of freshness.

And then we finish with the sauce.

Generous on the filet.

It's decadent.

You want to put a big amount of butter.

That is what Dover sole meuniere is all about.

And then to finish, there's this thing that I love

that a lot of restaurants do.

They actually put some cheesecloth on top of a lemon

and then touch of twine.

Cheesecloth is basically what cheesemongers use

when they're putting cheese for the whey to get out,

all the liquids in the cheese.

So it kind of, like, densifies.

You can do that with kind of any cloth.

It doesn't really matter,

but this is what French restaurants do.

So the cheesecloth technique with the lemon

so that when you squeeze, there is zero seed.

Touch of salt to finish.

Bit of black pepper lightly.

And here you have it.

Best part is obviously the sauce.

[light whimsical music]

It's so flavorful but simple.

The butter is really the main component.

It coats all your mouth.

The parsley and the capers bring freshness with a lemon.

The fish is perfectly cooked.

It just makes me happy.