Ingredients
(Serves four)
For the Seville orange sauce
100ml Seville orange juice (3-4 oranges) - or use a 50:50 mixture of ordinary orange and lemon juice
1 heaped tsp grated Seville (or ordinary) orange zest, briefly blanched in boiling water to remove any bitterness
2 fresh bay leaves
Sprig of thyme
Pinch of ground cinnamon
150g good-quality unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2tsp caster sugar
For the megrim sole
4 megrim sole fillets, about 200g each
3tbs olive oil
Method
To make the sauce, place the orange juice and zest, bay, thyme and cinnamon in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stirring constantly with a balloon whisk, add the butter in three lots. Keep the pan over a very low heat and make sure that the sauce emulsifies nicely.
Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl, add the sugar to taste and season with salt. It will take more salt than you might think to balance the acidity. Keep the sauce warm, stirring occasionally, while you cook the fish. You could leave the sauce in a bain-marie, but do not allow it to boil.
Heat a frying pan over a high heat until smoking hot. Season the fish with salt and a little black pepper. Drizzle the olive oil into the pan to cover the base and gently ease in each fillet, skin-side down, shaking the pan as you go to prevent sticking. Lower the heat to medium and fry the fillets for 4-5 minutes until cooked halfway through. Turn them gently and fry for a couple more minutes until just cooked through. Remove and serve immediately with the warm sauce spooned over the fish.
Sherry match by Moro 2005 Belondrade y Lurton Verdejo, Rueda, Spain
By Samantha Clark, Moro, London