I did quite a bit of cooking and eating last month - 'tis the season, right? Apparently I was so busy cooking and eating that I never got a chance to post! But enough of the excuses.
I really enjoyed cooking from Ina Garten's Back to Basics. When I saw the easy sole meuniere on page 130 I knew I wanted to try it. I was inspired to make this recipe by Julia Child's account in the book, My Life in France, of her first meal after arriving in France with her husband in 1948. She was so absolutely delighted by the sole meuniere:

"...after consulting the waiter Paul had decided to order sole meuniere. It
arrived whole: a large, flat Dover sole that was perfectly browned in a
sputtering butter sauce with a sprinkling of chopped parsely on top. The waiter
carefully placed the platter in front of us, stepped back, and said: "Bon
appetit!"

I closed my eyes and inhaled the rising perfume. Then I lifted a forkful of
fish to my mouth, took a bite, and chewed slowly. The flesh of the sole was
delicate, with a light but distinct taste of the ocean that blended marvelously
with the browned butter. I chewed slowly and swallowed. It was a morsel of
perfection."

It seems this may have been the very moment that Julia Child fell in love with French cuisine! Her description of the sole meuniere put me right there at the table with her at the restaurant La Couronne and I wanted to recreate the flavor of that first perfect bite.

I planned to prepare this dish for four people and purchased six fillets, thinking that would be more than enough for four servings. After I began preparing dinner I noticed that the recipe only serves two with two fillets per person. At that point I did not want to go back to the store though so I just went ahead with the meal preparation.

This meal was super easy to prepare and the bubbling brown butter and lemon juice made the kitchen smell amazing! The sole fillets were incredibly tender and so light and flaky that turning them over as they cooked in the pan was a very delicate process but I managed to do so successfully and only broke a peice off of one - not bad!
I must say, that the sole turned out really nice. Each tender bite was a close-your-eyes, melt-in-your-mouth, morsel of lemon and butter kissed yumminess!

To go along with the sole meuniere, I made the oven-roasted vegetables (pg 171). One of the reasons I chose this as a side dish is because I adore the way that oven-roasting brings out the flavor of vegetables. This particular recipe uses fingerling potatoes, green beans, fennel and asparugus. I chose to leave out the asparagus since I associate it with spring time and would prefer to use it when it is at its seasonal peak. Shaving parmesan cheese over the tender, roasted veggies and letting it melt for the last two minutes in the oven made this side dish extra special. The melted parmesan cheese became lightly crisp after it came out of the oven and began to cool and it added a sweet, nutiness to the vegetables. Also, if you have never roasted fennel, I would highly recommend it. The sweet, carmelized licorice-y essence of the fennel really complimented the potatoes and green beans!

bon appetit!

Tempa