Sole à la Meunière is a method of preparing sole "in the manner of the miller's wife", that is to say, coated in flour and fried. The fish is then served with a simple and subtle sauce of butter, lemon, and parsley. Since the miller would live near a water source used to power his mill, his wife also had access to the freshest fish, and therefore did not need to disguise its taste by using an elaborate sauce.
Here I am presenting a meal I made with sole à la meunière accompanied by roasted beets and a salad of baby bok choy.
Since the beets take the longest to cook, the first step is to preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the beets, but leave the skin on. Wrap them well in aluminum foil. Roast in the oven on a baking sheet for about 35-40 minutes. You should finish this before starting the fish, as you will need your oven at 325 degrees for the fish. You could even do this a day ahead and reheat the beets, or even serve them cold.
Meanwhile, prepare your baby bok choy. Baby bok choy is a tender green that does not need to be cooked. It makes a wonderful salad. It has a really fresh taste. My children absolutely love it, and so do I!
Chop the bok choy for your salad, wash it, and dry it. I like to use my salad spinner to quickly and easily dry my salad greens.
Then prepare a salad dressing by whisking together a bit of dijon mustard with some sherry vinegar, grapeseed oil, olive oil and salt and pepper. I don't measure this out, I just do it by taste and quantity desired. You should have only a spoonful of mustard, and a little less vinegar than oil.
Next, wash your fish and pat it dry.
Dredge the fish in flour
Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan, and fry the fish, undisturbed for about 4 minutes.
Flip the fish to brown the other side, again about 3-4 minutes.
Transfer the fish to a baking sheet, and place in a 325 degree oven to keep the fish warm while the sauce is being made.
Melt a stick of butter in the same frying pan that you cooked the fish in.
Cook the butter until it becomes a nice medium brown color.
Squeeze the juice of one lemon...
and add it to the butter.
Add a couple of tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley.
Now, if your beets are still warm from the oven, peel them and slice into serving portions.
Remove the fish from the oven, drizzle some sauce over the top. Arrange some beets and salad on the plate, and dress your salad with a spoonful of dressing.
P.S. Another great option is to substitute cooked beet greens for the baby bok choy. You should always purchase your beets with greens attached, as it indicates freshness. The beet greens should be washed, and then sauteed in some olive oil with some chopped onion, salt and pepper. They are delicious and very healthy. In this case I saved my beet greens and used them the next day with a different meal.
P.P.S. Many of the photo credits on this post go to my 8-year-old daughter, who snapped me in action slicing the beets, squeezing and pouring the lemon juice, and preparing the salad dressing. She also took some photos for the gnocchi post below. I think she did a great job!
