Pan-fried plaice with lemon and capers

Cooking plaice whole produces a dish with more flavour than using fillets.  Also, the flesh turns out to be firmer than using fillets.  Cooking it simply with butter, lemon and capers is quite exquisite.

The recipe, suggests frying one side of the fish and then grilling the other side.  This mitigates against the risk of damaging the fish when turning them over.

Preparation Time: 10 Mins

Cooking Time: 6 Mins

Total Time: 16 Mins

Ingredients

For 2 servings…

3 tbs               Flour        

                     Pepper      

                     Salt          

2                    Plaice  - whole        

3 tbs               Olive oil    

30 gms            Butter       

4 rbs               Lemon juice            

2 tbs               Capers      

To garnish

                     Parsley  - chopped    

2 wedges         Lemon      

Method

Sift flour onto a plate and season with salt and pepper.  Dip the fish into the flour to coat on both sides.

Turn on a grill high and let it warm up.

Heat oil and butter in an oven-proof skillet.  Add the fish and fry over a medium heat for about 3 minutes on one side (the white-skin side) – shaking occasionally to prevent sticking.  Baste the top side of the fish with oil / butter from the pan and put it under the hot grill for 3 minutes.

Put the fish on to a platter.  Add the lemon juice and capers to the pan and heat through.  Pour it over the fish, garnish with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

Variations

Rather than cooking whole fish, fillets can be cooked, but the result is not as good as cooking a whole fish.

The recipe can be used for sole.

Wine recommendations

A white wine.

Conventional

     Mâcon

Interesting

     Côtes de Gascogne blanc

     Entre-deux-Mers

     Jurançon sec

     Picpoul de Pinet

     Pinot Gris