Sole meunière

Dry and flour the soles. Check the four prepared soles for remaining bones, pat completely dry, season with salt and pepper, dust lightly with the 60 g flour and shake off the excess. Use tray, paper towel, shallow flour dish. Allow 10 minutes. The fish carry only a thin, even veil of flour with no thick patches or wet flour clumps. Dry fish and a thin flour coating promote even browning without a breaded crust. Keep the fish cold until immediately before flouring and cooking.

Cook in two batches. Melt 50 g of the pan-cooking butter in a 30 cm frying pan. Cook two soles, turning once; transfer to a warm platter, repeat with the second 50 g butter and remaining two fish, and verify each fish reaches 63 °C. Use 30 cm frying pan, fish spatula, thermometer. Keep to medium heat. Allow 12 minutes total (two batches of 6 minutes). Each sole is lightly golden, releases from the pan without tearing and reaches 63 °C in the thickest edible section. Two batches prevent crowding and make the delicate fish easier to turn. Use a thermometer at the thickest edible section and keep raw-fish utensils separate from the cooked platter.

Brown the finishing butter. Add the 60 g finishing butter to the clean or wiped pan and heat until the milk solids turn hazelnut-brown and smell nutty, not burnt; remove from the heat and add lemon juice and parsley carefully. Use small frying pan or cleaned fish pan. Keep to medium heat then off heat. Allow 3 minutes. The butter is hazelnut-brown with a nutty aroma and no black burnt specks. Controlled browning develops the defining beurre noisette character of the finish. Lemon added to hot butter can spit; add it off the heat and away from the face.