Sole Arlésienne

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •40 x 30 cm (16 x 12-inch) shallow roasting dish
• •30 cm (12-inch) wide sauté pan
• •Small heavy saucepan and frying thermometer
• •Small sharp paring knife
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Two wide fish spatulas
• •Long warmed serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the garnishes

   Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Prepare the tomato concassé, the peeled, seeded and roughly chopped flesh: score the tomato bases, cover them with boiling water for 30 seconds, cool them in cold water, then peel, halve, seed and chop. Cut the marrow into 1½-inch (4 cm) lengths and turn them with a small paring knife into twelve short tournées, olive-shaped pieces tapered at both ends. Equal size matters more than perfect symmetry. Keep the twelve pieces together and reserve the trimmings for another meal.

   The tournée is useful knife work, not an examination. Five or six clean facets and evenly tapered ends are enough; the pieces only need to cook at the same rate and retain their olive form.
2. 2

   Fry the onions

   Heat the frying oil in a small heavy saucepan to 350°F (175°C), keeping the pan no more than half full. Dry the thin onion rings well, toss them lightly in the flour and shake away every loose speck. Fry in small batches until crisp and deep golden, about 2 minutes, then lift them to a wire rack and season with a small pinch of the measured salt. If they soften while the dish waits, ça se rattrape: return them to 375°F (190°C) oil for 15 seconds, drain well and serve at once.

   Crowded onions cool the oil and drink it. Small batches give you crisp strands light enough to sit at the ends of the platter without turning greasy.
3. 3

   Build the tomato garnish

   Melt 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of the butter in a wide sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the finely chopped small onion with a pinch of salt and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring, until soft and translucent without browning. Add the tomato concassé, garlic, parsley and half the white pepper. Cover and cook gently for 8 minutes, until the tomato releases its juice but retains some texture. If the mixture looks watery, uncover it for a minute; do not cook it dry, because the reduced fumet still has to join it. Transfer the garnish to a bowl.

4. 4

   Butter the marrow

   Melt another 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) of butter in the same pan over medium-low heat. Add the twelve marrow tournées and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, rolling them often in the butter, until glossy and tender enough for a paring knife to enter with slight resistance. Keep the heat gentle so the outside does not brown before the centre softens. Transfer all twelve pieces and their butter to a separate bowl; they join the sauce only after the fumet has reduced.

5. 5

   Poach the sole

   Butter a shallow roasting dish with the remaining 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) of butter. Lay the two sole side by side and season lightly with the remaining salt and white pepper. Wipe the sauté pan, warm the fish fumet until it is just below a simmer, then pour it around the fish. Cover the surface closely with a sheet of parchment and poach in the oven for 12 to 16 minutes. Check beside the backbone at the thickest point: the flesh should be opaque, lift cleanly from the bone and reach 145°F (63°C). Lift the sole immediately onto a warmed long platter with two wide spatulas and cover loosely. The fish leaves now; the reduction happens without it.

   Begin checking at 12 minutes. A thin sole waits for no sauce, and leaving it in the poaching liquid while you organize the garnish is how tender flesh becomes dry.
6. 6

   Reduce and unite

   Strain the poaching fumet from the roasting dish into the sauté pan. Boil it uncovered until reduced to about 1 cup (240 ml), with tighter bubbles and a clean, concentrated taste, about 6 to 9 minutes. Stir in the tomato-onion garnish, then add all twelve marrow tournées with their butter and any juices gathered on the fish platter. Simmer for 1 minute and taste. If the sauce is thin, lift out the marrow and reduce the liquid again; if it has tightened or become too salty, loosen it one tablespoon of water or unsalted fumet at a time. Ça se rattrape.

7. 7

   Dress the platter

   Spoon the tomato garnish and reduced fumet generously over the sole. Arrange six butter-glossed marrow tournées along each fish, then gather the fried onion into two small heaps, one at each end of the platter, keeping it out of the sauce so it stays crisp. Bring the platter straight to the table and divide the fish there. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Fish fumet is the sauce's spine. Use a clean, unsmoked finished fumet, homemade or bought from a good fishmonger. If a packaged fumet tastes salty, dilute it before poaching because the reduction will magnify every grain.
• •Use fresh tomatoes only when they smell ripe. Outside their season, two good whole canned plum tomatoes, drained, peeled of any loose skin and emptied of seeds, are the honest answer; tired fresh tomatoes give the sauce neither sweetness nor acidity.
• •The twelve olive-shaped pieces are marrow, not olives. A firm courgette is the practical home equivalent to the larger vegetable marrow named by the book because its close-grained flesh holds the tournée and cooks evenly in butter.
• •Ask the fishmonger to prepare the sole. Dover sole has the firmness to survive whole poaching and transfer; if it is unavailable, use two comparably sized lemon sole or firm flounder, and begin checking several minutes earlier.
• •Serve a dry white Costières de Nîmes or another restrained southern French white. Do not reach automatically for lemon: tomato supplies the acidity here, and lemon would redraw the dish.

Advance Preparation

• •Have the fish fumet ready up to 2 days ahead and keep it covered in the cold. Taste it before cooking so you know how aggressively it can be reduced.
• •The tomato-onion garnish can be cooked up to 6 hours ahead, cooled promptly and refrigerated. Turn the marrow at the same time, but keep it covered and cook it in butter shortly before poaching the fish.
• •Fry the onion rings up to 2 hours ahead and hold them uncovered on a rack at room temperature. If they soften, give them the brief second frying described in the method.
• •Poach the sole only when the table is nearly ready. It does not improve by waiting, while every garnish around it can be standing by.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)