Megrim sole with brown shrimps and capers

Serves 4

Mark Hi
Saturday 05 February 2011 01:00 GMT
Comments

I've been serving megrim sole for years and the big question is whether it's going to become the new lemon sole. In France, you will find it on the fishmongers' slabs as cardine and in Spain it's known as gallo; over there it's as popular a fish as our Dover and lemon soles. Megrim is certainly in abundance in the West Country (along with Torbay and witch soles) but on restaurant menus I think it will take a little time for it to gain popularity with diners. It can be treated in exactly the same way as other soles and it will almost certainly cost a fraction of the price.

4 megrim soles weighing about 250-300g with the fins and black skin removed
Plain flour for dusting
A couple of tablespoons of vegetable or corn oil
100g unsalted butter
80g peeled brown shrimps
2tbsp capers, washed
Juice of half a lemon
2tbsp finely chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Season the soles and lightly flour the white skin side. Heat some vegetable oil in a heavy or non-stick frying pan and cook the soles with the skin side down – first for 3-4 minutes on each side on a medium heat, adding a knob of butter for the last couple of minutes of cooking, until they are golden. You may need to cook the soles in a couple of batches, depending on your frying pans.

Once the soles are cooked, heat the rest of the butter in a small frying pan until it begins to foam and stir in the shrimps, capers, parsley and lemon juice and remove from the heat.

To serve, lay the soles on warmed serving plates and spoon the shrimps and butter over.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in