Sole à l'Indienne Recipe

With Valentine's day literally only a couple of days away,  over the next couple of days I am going to be providing various cordon-bleu (blue ribband) recipes that will allow you to prepare a three or four course meal to chef standards. Today I will provide a mix of starters, main course and dessert with one extra chocolate course to serve with coffee.

Tomorrow there will be more recipes that will allow you to chose the best possible combination of courses for the person you love.


All the recipes presented here for Valentine's day come from the Cordon Bleu (Blue Ribband) school of cookery and allow you to prepare a whole meal to professional standards.

This first recipes is a classic starter of sole fillets in a creamy curry sauce served on a bed of rice.

Sole à l'Indienne (Sole, in the Indian Fashion)

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 whole fillets of sole (about 675g [1 1/2 lbs] apiece)
6 black peppercorns
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 lemon, sliced (for garnish)
paprika, to garnish

For the Cream Curry Sauce:
1 tbsp onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 dessertspoon curry powder
300ml (1 1/4 cups) tomato juice
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
3 slices of lemon
1 tbsp apricot jam
300ml (1 1/4 cups) mayonnaise

For the Rice:

115g (4 oz) long-grain rice
115g (4 oz) firm button mushrooms
squeeze of lemon juice
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
115g cooked prawns (shrimp) weighed after peeling
4 tbsp French dressing (2:1 ratio of olive oil and white wine vinegar and minced herbs to flavour)

Method:

Trim the plaice fillets neatly then wash and dry. Fold in half (head to tail) then set in a buttered ovenproof dish. Season with salt then arrange the peppercorns on one side and squeeze over the juice of 1/2 lemon. Cover with buttered kitchen foil then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170ºC (340ºF) and poach gently for 9 minutes. After this time, transfer the fish to a plate and set aside.

For the curry sauce, heat the oil in a small pan, add the onion and garlic and cook gently to just soften for a few minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for a few minutes more then stir in the tomato juice.

Bring to a simmer and cook for 8 minutes then add the seasonings and the lemon juice. Stir in the jam and cook until melted then pass the juices through a fine-meshed sieve. Allow the liquid to cool slightly then stir in the mayonnaise and adjust the seasoning to taste.

In the meantime, bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Add the rice and cook for 12 minutes (or until just tender) then drain the rice, refresh in a bowl of iced water, drain and pat dry.

Trim the mushrooms and wipe clean then slice and cook quickly in a non-stick pan with a squeeze of lemon juice and salt and black pepper to taste. Turn onto a plate and set aside to cool.

In a bowl, mix together the rice, prawns and mushrooms. Moisten with the French dressing then arrange in the centre a long serving dish (the width of the rice should be about half that of the plaice fillets).

Cut the plaice fillets in half, so that it just sits on the rice. Mask the fish in a little of the curry mixture then sit on top of the rice and use the remaining curry mixture to coat the top of the fish.

Garnish with lemon slices and a sprinkling of paprika. Serve accompanied by any remaining sauce.

For a Complete Valentine's Day meal, you can choose from the recipes presented on this blog:

Starters:

Sole à l'Indienne (Fish)

Main Courses:
Pork Tenderloin with Prunes (Pork)

Desserts:

Orange Soufflé Nantaise

Savarin Chantilly

Other Recipes:

Chocolate Truffles (to serve with coffee)

For hundreds more Valentine's day recipes, and a brief introduction to Valentine's day please visit the Celtnet St Valentine's day recipes selection page.