Sautéed Petrale Sole in Herb Butter Sauce

Another drop of wonderful Northern California petrale sole from SirenSeaSA this week so I went with this sweet recipe from Simply Recipes, a kind of a take on sole meunière with a beautiful herb butter sauce. With the garden bursting with fresh herbs in the Spring now, I love trying to work them into anything I cook for the amazing aromatic quality they bring to even the simplest of dishes. Between the fresh herbs and the fish, this recipe was a natural.

Garden herbs and shallots

beautiful fillets

this is about done

adding the shallots to the pan

... and the butter

sauce is just about done

dressed and ready to serve

Ingredients:
3 large fillets of petrale sole
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons minced shallots
1/4 cup dry white wine
salt

Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 even pieces
leaves of several fresh thyme twigs, minced
minced fresh chives
juice of 1/2 lemon

lemon wedges

Directions:
Pat the sole fillets dry with paper towels. There is a lot of moisture in petrale sole, so you might have to pat them dry twice. Lightly salt the fillets on both sides.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, carefully add the fillets to the pan and brown gently for 2-3 minutes or until browned but not burned. Carefully flip the fillets over and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the fish starts to lightly come apart - it will be done when it flakes easily and is no longer translucent. It really takes very little cooking time over all. Once done, remove the fillets from pan, place on a warm plate, and tent with foil while you make the sauce.

To make the sauce, add the minced shallots to the pan in which you cooked the fish and sauté until soft - this should take less than a minute. Deglaze the pan with the wine making sure to scrape up any browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Add the pieces of butter and gently swirl to make a sauce. Add the minced herbs and squeeze the lemon juice into the sauce. Spoon over the sole.

Serve immediately with the lemon wedges at the table.