Sole Alice

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large shallow roasting pan or fish poacher, at least 16 by 12 inches (41 by 30 cm)
• •Small flexible filleting knife
• •Wide flexible fish spatula
• •2-quart (2-liter) saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Large oval serving platter and a second platter for covering the fillets

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the service

   Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C). Set an oval serving platter and four dinner plates in a 200°F (95°C) oven to warm, then remove them once hot and cover with a clean towel. Use 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) of the butter to coat a large shallow roasting pan. Keep the remaining 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 56 g) cold and cut into small pieces. Crush the biscottes, chop the onions very finely, and grind the thyme between your fingers until powdery. Once the poaching begins, the dish moves quickly.

2. 2

   Open the upper fillets

   Place each sole with its former dark side facing upward. Run a flexible knife lightly along the central backbone, then ease the two upper fillets away from the bones by about ½ inch (1.25 cm) along that cut, leaving the fillets otherwise attached. This slight opening lets the fumet reach the thickest flesh without overcooking the thin edges. Lay the soles opened side down in the buttered pan, which is the book's instruction to poach them on their backs.

   Ask the fishmonger to skin and trim the soles, but keep the skeletons intact. You need the bones to support the fish during poaching and to guide the fillets away cleanly afterward.
3. 3

   Poach at a tremble

   Warm the White Fish Stock (No. 11) in a saucepan until it is hot but not boiling. Pour 1¾ cups (415 ml / 415 g) around the soles and reserve ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g) for adjusting the sauce. Cover the fish directly with buttered parchment, seal the pan with foil, and poach in the oven for 15 to 22 minutes. The fumet should tremble gently, never bubble hard. The fish is ready when the thickest flesh is opaque, separates cleanly from the backbone, and reaches 145°F (63°C). If the liquor begins boiling, take the pan out for one minute and lower the oven to 300°F (150°C). Ça se rattrape, provided you stop the hard heat promptly.

4. 4

   Lift the fillets

   Transfer each sole carefully to a board, preserving all the cooking liquor in the pan. With a spoon and flexible fish spatula, lift away the two upper fillets along the central bone. Raise the head-end of the skeleton and peel it back in one piece, then lift the two lower fillets from their white skin. Arrange the eight fillets on the warm platter, two per serving, and cover them with a second warm platter or buttered parchment. Do not return them to the oven. They are cooked, and further heat only dries them.

5. 5

   Bind with biscottes

   Pour the sole's cooking liquor into the saucepan and bring it to the gentlest simmer. Add the chopped onions and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until translucent and no longer sharply raw but not browned. Stir in the powdered thyme. Sprinkle in one-third of the biscotte crumbs while whisking, wait 30 seconds for them to swell, then continue a spoonful at a time until the sauce is nappant, thick enough to veil the back of a spoon while still flowing freely. You may not need every crumb. If it becomes pasty, whisk in the reserved White Fish Stock (No. 11), one tablespoon at a time. If it remains thin, add another spoonful of crumbs and simmer for 30 seconds. Ça se rattrape.

   Biscottes absorb more slowly than flour. Pause after each addition or you will thicken the sauce twice: once in the pan, then again while it travels to the table.
6. 6

   Set oysters, mount butter

   Lower the sauce to a bare tremble and add the oysters with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of their strained liquor. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, turning them gently, until plump, opaque, and just firm. Pull the pan from the heat. Monter au beurre, mounting with butter, means swirling in the remaining cold butter a few pieces at a time until the sauce gleams and holds together. Do not let it boil again. If the butter separates into oily beads, remove the oysters, whisk in 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of cold reserved White Fish Stock (No. 11), then rebuild with one cold butter piece at a time. Ça se rattrape. Return the oysters once the sauce is smooth.

7. 7

   Sauce and serve

   Taste before adding salt because the fumet and oysters may have supplied enough. Return the sole fillets to the warm serving dish, nestle the oysters among them, and spoon the sauce over copiously, coating every fillet. Carry the dish straight to the table with the warm plates. The original waiter completed this over a dining-room flame; your prompt service preserves the same intention without the equipment or theater. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Use true Dover sole if it is available. Its close-textured flesh holds together when poached whole and lifted from the bone; thinner flatfish can taste lovely, but their fillets are more fragile and the result will not handle quite like Sole Alice.
• •The White Fish Stock (No. 11) must be short, pale, and clean-tasting. A dark commercial seafood stock or one heavy with shellfish overwhelms the sole and turns the sauce muddy. Make the referenced fumet separately and reach for it here as a finished component.
• •Biscottes are plain twice-baked rusks, dry enough to crush into very fine crumbs. If they cannot be found, use the same weight of plain unseasoned melba toast. Fresh breadcrumbs become gummy and are not an honest equivalent.
• •Shuck the oysters over a bowl so their liquor is not lost, then pass that liquor through a fine sieve to remove shell grit. Buy oysters from a reliable fishmonger and keep them cold until the final minutes.
• •For pregnant, older, or immunocompromised guests, cook the oysters to 145°F (63°C), remove them, and only then mount the sauce with butter off the heat. The oysters will be firmer, but the sauce will remain intact.
• •A portable induction hob can reproduce the tableside finish safely if you already own one. It is not required. The essential point is that the oysters and butter enter at the last moment, not that your guests watch them do it.
• •Pour a mineral dry white such as Chablis or Muscadet. The wine should sharpen the butter and respect the oysters, not perfume the sole into submission.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare the White Fish Stock (No. 11) up to 2 days ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator, or freeze it for up to 2 months. Reheat it gently before poaching the sole.
• •The onions may be chopped and the biscottes crushed up to 6 hours ahead. Keep the onions covered and cold, and the crumbs dry at room temperature.
• •Trim and open the soles earlier on the day of serving, then keep them covered over ice in the refrigerator. Shuck the oysters only shortly before the sauce is finished.
• •Do not complete the oyster-and-butter sauce ahead. Reheating would tighten the oysters and break the mounted butter, precisely the two failures this preparation is designed to avoid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 290g)