Recipe for lemon sole sous vide
Delicious and juicy Dover sole fillet – perfectly prepared using the sous vide technique.
Like most Saturday mornings, my wife and I visit our local market and stop by our local fishmonger. This way, we often get a delicious piece of fish either on Saturday or Sunday night. At the same time, the fishmonger is good at giving my daughter a warm fish cake, while I chat away and learn about the fishmonger’s products – a win-win for everyone. This ensures that we get seasonal produce, and who better to tell you about preparation techniques and accompaniments than the fishmonger? So, two fillets went into the basket, so I could make one variant using sous vide and one more classically prepared.
With two small children in the house and a son who didn’t take the obligatory naps during the day, I suddenly felt pressured when I discovered that I had received the whole fish (though without the head and tail), so I had to fillet 4 fillets out of it, while being time-pressed with a son in my arms. Fortunately, my wife jumped in and helped me.
Dover sole is not something I’ve worked with often, but it can be described as a luxury version of a plaice. As a delicate fish, it definitely shouldn’t be cooked for too long, so it got a bit less time than I normally give my white fish in the water bath.
The fish was, of course, gourmet salted beforehand, making it a bit firmer in texture.
The result turned out fantastic, and I don’t think I’ll be preparing my Dover sole fillet any other way in the future.
Lemon sole sous vide
Equipment
- Cutting Board
- Pre-Slicing Knife
- Sous Vide
Ingredients
- 4 pcs. Red Tongue Fish fillet
- Salt
Instructions
- If you haven't bought fillets, you need to fillet your fish. There are 2 fillets on the top side and underside.
- Start by trimming the edges so you have just the clean fillets left.
- Take a long, thin, and flexible/soft knife and make a cut along the bone in the middle. Slice downward at an angle into the skeleton while cutting away from the central bone. This way, you get all the fish with the fillet free. Repeat for the other three fillets.
- Place the fish on a cutting board and sprinkle salt on both sides. This is a gourmet salting that helps extract moisture from the fish and makes the flesh firmer.
- Set your water bath to 52 degrees Celsius (126 degrees Fahrenheit).
- After 10 minutes of brining the fish, rinse them off under cold water - under the tap. This removes the salt and stops the brining process.
- Pat the fish dry thoroughly (I always use a clean tea towel) and carefully place your fillets in a vacuum bag.
- Place the bag in the water bath and cook the fish for 20 minutes.
- Carefully take the fish out - it is very delicate, so use a spatula or similar to remove it. Pat it dry with a clean tea towel or kitchen paper and serve immediately.