This morning my fish monger had some irresistible Lemon Sole on display. One look at those, and suddenly my dinner plans were crystal clear to me!
The weather is warming up and I felt like cooking the fish with a spring-like, fresh new twist. I often make fresh salsa to top my fish. Usual ingredients, of course, are shallots, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Today, I decided to try a new twist. I substituted parsley with mint. Since I love a little spice in my food, I also added a fresh green chilli pepper (you could use jalapeno).
And the result? ….. PHENOMENAL!!!
The mint really sang in this dish. It’s fresh, crisp flavor went wonderfully with my spring-like mood. :-) The little touch of lemon and chilli pepper was perfect combination to raise the bar on this dish and compliment this subtly flavored fish.
Since this is a very mildly flavored fish, it is important to finely chop all the ingredients in the salsa. For the same reason, it is also critical to make sure that no one ingredient overwhelms the total flavor profile.
A delicate fish like Lemon Sole needs to be handled with a soft touch. Most people prefer to bake it. I cooked it for just a couple of minutes in a pan with some butter and olive oil. The butter and olive oil added moisture to the fish and the end result was a real juicy piece of fish on my plate. And the fresh crunch of the fresh salsa served on top of this moist and juicy fish was the perfect pairing.
Ok….now on to the nitty gritty: For 2 filets of the Lemon Sole, I used about ¼ cup of finely chopped shallots, ¼ cup of chopped mint, ¼ cup of cilantro, ¼ cup of finely diced tomatoes, ½ tsp of fresh chopped garlic, juice of ½ a lemon, ¼ cup of olive oil, 1 green chilli pepper finely chopped. And of course salt and pepper to taste.
It a perfect spring/summer-time dish. Colorful and flavorful. Moist and crunchy. Delicate and yet complex. Hope you try it!
