Dover sole fillets with lemon sauce and wild garlic dumplings, by Nathan Outlaw
For this recipe I like to use the chunky fillets from bigger "doormat" Dover sole, which are around when wild garlic is in season. It's a great pairing and the zingy lemon sauce brings the dish together a treat.
When the scent of wild garlic, also known as ramsons, pervades the Cornish lanes, you know spring and warmer weather is on the way. You can use normal sized Dover sole, or indeed any other flat fish, here.
Ingredients
(Serves four)
2 large Dover soles, 700-800g each, or 4 smaller 400-500g fish, filleted
Rapeseed oil for cooking
20 purple sprouting or tenderstem broccoli stems
Cornish sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon sauce
1 egg yolk
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
200ml light olive oil
50ml double cream
100ml roast fish stock (see page 222 of the book)
To serve
Wild garlic dumplings (see page 230 of the book)
2tsp shredded wild garlic (ramsons), optional
Lemon oil (see page 227 of the book) to drizzle
Method
For the lemon sauce, whisk the egg yolk, lemon zest and juice together for one minute and then slowly whisk in the olive oil, as for mayonnaise. Season with salt to taste and set aside.
Heat a splash of rapeseed oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Season the fish fillets and lay them in the pan, skin side down. Cook for three minutes, then turn and cook on the other side for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the fish to rest in the pan for a further two minutes.
While the fish is cooking, add the broccoli to a pan of boiling salted water and blanch for three minutes. At the same time, fry the dumplings, according to the recipe, in a little oil until golden.
Meanwhile, to finish the sauce, whisk in the cream, followed by the fish stock. Warm gently over a medium heat - do not allow to boil. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more fish stock. Taste and season with a little more salt if required.
Drain the broccoli as soon as it is ready. Share it equally between four warmed plates and spoon on some of the lemon sauce. Place the fish on top, scatter over the shredded wild garlic, if using, and add the wild garlic dumplings. Drizzle with lemon oil. Serve at once, with the rest of the lemon sauce in a jug on the side.
