Whole Dover Sole in a Salt Crust

The problem with my fish market being one more town South of my own is that I can only get there on Friday and Saturday, the rest of the time I am beholden to Whole Foods and their woefully miniscule fish selection.  Friday I headed out shopping fully intending to make myself a smoked trout and oyster chowder recipe I had been kicking around in my head and maybe pick up a piece of fish for 'he who is not so brave'.  I walked into Captain Marden's and spied Whole Dover Sole. 

DOVER SOLE(!) for the same price as Swordfish or Tuna at Whole Foods.  I know I am heading to the U.K. in two months time and will likely be able to have all the Dover Sole I want, but damn...there it was in front of me. Out the window went the chowder, well maybe just out the window until later.

The first time I make any new fish I try the simplest treatment possible so I can really taste the fish.
Before I had reached the local Roche Bros to pick up the rest of the grocery list I already knew I would bake it whole in a salt crust.  I grabbed some lemons, some chervil - a lovely delicate herb, and a few others like tarragon,thyme and rosemary that I knew I would need over the week.

The most fascinating thing to me about flat fish is that they start out their life as a round fish with eyes on either side of their heads.  Later, as they begin to mature and lose their air bladder causing them to head down to the ocean floor to feed, they begin to flatten out and one of their eyes migrates around to the top.  There is never a guarantee that the eye that migrates will land even with the other eye which can make flat fish look a bit wonky.

The sole had not been gutted which is rather unusual these days to find in a fish market so I slit the side and pulled out the livers and cleaned the slit out the best I could.  I cut off the fins with scissors and rinsed the fish thoroughly.

Whisk up a few egg whites until frothy and dump in about a pound of kosher or sea salt - I have done this method before with just a bit of water to make a paste instead of egg whites, but I find that egg whites make a firmer crust to keep the fish protected.  In fact, this method is so foolproof, it makes it really difficult to screw up.  Into the mixture of salt and egg whites I mixed in some thyme leaves packed some of this mixture on the bottom of the pan.  Instead of stuffing the cavity of the fish with aromatics, I opted to just place them in the salt pack instead, so I laid down a line of lemon slices and thyme sprigs, put the fish on top, sprinkled on a few tarragon leaves and then closed the whole thing up with more salt making sure that the fish was completely encased.

Popped it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes while I made a sauce.  Again, keeping this simple so I could taste the sweet delicate fish I made a beurre noisette (unsalted butter cooked until it is a nice nut brown colour and smells of nuts), I tossed in a splash of white wine, some capers and some minced chervil, salt and pepper.

When the fish came out, I poked a hole through the salt and took a reading with an instant read thermometer to be sure it was at 130F.

Now comes the fun part.  Take the back of a knife and tap the spine across the salt crust to crack it open.  Peel off the skin and discard and then using a fish slice or a thin spatula, gently lift off the filet, whole if possible, and lay it on a plate. There will be two fillets on each side of the fish so remove the second filet and place it on the plate.  Now, very much like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, lift the tail and the entire frame will come out clean.  Be happy that you are doing this in your own kitchen with no one to watch.  This entire filleting process used to commonly done table side to the ooohs and aaahs of the diner.  That sort of service has died out over the years.

Remove the two filets from the other side. 

I plated this with one of my favourites, butter beans, and poured the sauce over both the beans and the filets. Oh My.  So good for such little effort.  Really.  This whole dish can be executed in 30 - 40 minutes and it was worth every last bite.

Comments

[Allan]

That looks so good. And I love butter beans.

When you get around to making that chowder, please share the recipe. It sounds great, too.

[margalit]

I love dover sole and every time our fish market has it, I buy some, even though it's pretty expensive. It's just so good and tender.

But I have a question. I've always wanted to try a salt crust but I'm fearful about the salt content that is left over. On a low salt diet, would this be something that I should avoid?

[Christiane]

I've been dying to make a salt crusted fish for the longest time, and now that you've shown how easy it is, I definitely will try it. Thanks for the step-by-steps.

[mamatrina]

Dover Sole, cool! My mom's favorite fish is Dover Sole. She grew up in Andover (now lives in Sonoma, CA), and she still has relatives all over--Sandwich, West Boxford, etc, etc. If you know any Bradstreets, we're probably related somehow. Her late uncle started Nason Stone House Farm. I have great memories from my childhood of eating the broken pastries in the big kitchen, picking blueberries, and eating a whole lobster all by myself! And as far as I know the "secret recipe" that Uncle Henry used for the sauce for his meat pies is still a secret, held now by my mom's cousin Jimmy. I'll second Allan's comment--pls share the oyster/smoked trout chowder recipe when you make it!