The Riviera
Dover sole meunière, capers, lemon & samphire in browned butter
Draft recipe. This method has not yet been cooked and timed against a finished box by our chef. Times and weights will be confirmed before the first Founding 100 delivery.
In the box
- ·2 whole Dover sole, trimmed and skinned, ready to cook
- ·Caper and lemon sachet
- ·100 g samphire
- ·Butter portion
- ·Parsley
- ·1 lemon
From your kitchen
- ·A little flour for dusting
- ·Neutral oil
- ·Salt
- ·Your largest flat pan — this is the constraint on the dish
Method
- 01
Check your pan first
Do this before anything else. Dover sole is a flat, wide fish and it needs a wide flat pan. If it does not lie flat, cook them one at a time and keep the first warm in a low oven. Folding a sole to make it fit ruins it.
- 02
Dry, season, dust
Pat the fish thoroughly dry, season, then dust very lightly with flour and knock the excess off. You want a whisper of flour — enough to colour, not a coating. Do this at the last second: flour on a wet fish turns to paste while it waits.
- 03
Foaming butter, medium-high
Oil plus a knob of butter. Wait for the foam to subside and the butter to smell nutty — that is the temperature. Too cool and the fish sticks and steams; too hot and the butter burns before the fish is done.
- 04
3–4 minutes a side, once only
Lay the sole in darker-skin-side down. Leave it. Turn it once, with a fish slice and a steady hand. It is done when the flesh comes cleanly away from the backbone at the thickest point — lift with a knife tip and look.
- 05
Build the sauce in the pan
Fish onto warm plates. Straight into the same pan: the rest of the butter, and let it foam and brown. Then the capers and lemon — it will spit. Swirl, add the parsley, and it is finished. This takes about a minute; do not walk away.
- 06
Samphire
30 seconds in the sauce is all it needs. Samphire is already salty — taste before adding any salt to this dish at all.
Watch this
Beurre noisette is a 20-second window. Nutty and golden is right; dark and sharp-smelling is burnt, and burnt butter will make the whole plate bitter. Have the capers and lemon ready in your hand before the butter goes in.
At the table
- —Serve whole, on the bone. Lift the fillets at the table.
- —This is the fastest dish on the menu and the least tolerant of delay. Have everyone seated before the fish goes in the pan.
- —Salt last, if at all. The capers and samphire may already have done it.
The Founding 100
We compose. Your kitchen cooks.
The Riviera arrives raw, portioned and chilled, with this card in the box. AED 350 per person.