Sole meunière from Francois

Lemon sole (Microstomus kitt) is a very good flat fish, very tasty with a very good flesh although a little less firm than the Dover sole, the true sole (Sole solea). Please note the small head and mouth. The colour is generally brown with varied and irregular rounded markings of orange, yellow or green into the background colour. The skin is slimmy and smooth. At £19.50/kg on 19/02/10 it is cheaper than the true sole (£29.50/kg) and a good buy. An 800g sole will cost £16 and can serve two average dinners or one hungry one.

Lemon sole: small head and mouth

Lemon sole: gutted, scaled and trimmed

1. Singe lightly and cook in a mixture of sunflower oil and butter. I prefer to start cooking on the the "white side" which will then be the side on top in the plate. It will look golden and look better on the plate than the darker side. Cooking times depends on size: for an 800g sole (the picture) approximately 5-6 minutes on each side. For a small 250-300g fish, 2 minutes on each side.

Singe lightly and fry

Sauce meunière: whip 100g of butter and the juice of one lime (emulsion). Add water or lemon juice if too much butter.

Presentation: put the sole in a plate with the "white side" up. Dip parsley leaves in water to keep some dampness, put on the fish and sauce. I personally prefer to have the fish facing left on the plate (so that its mouth is at the bottom).

Presentation: put humid parsley and sauce

Note 1: Other flat fish can be cooked in the same way, whether they are in the sole family (Sand sole) or not, like the plaice (with its familiar orange or red spots), the flounder, the megrim, the scaldfish and the dab which belong to the Pleuronectidae family.

Note 2: Flatfish have both eyes on the same side of the head; some (the sinistral flatfish) on the left side and some (the dextral flatfish) on the right. Dextral flat fish, for example soles and lemon soles, are therefore portrayed swimming from left to right.