White fish recipe of Buckingham’s restaurant Derby

Sometimes simple cooking methods are best. When you want to cook a fillet of fish to perfection, keeping its delicate flavour intact, then poaching is the answer. This method uses a combination of fish stock and white wine to enhance the fish and has a very quick cooking time, ideal for a weekday evening meal when you are pushed for time. You can eat the fish plain with salad or steamed vegetables and a slice of lemon for a healthy and low-calorie meal or dress it up with one of the sauces suggested below to add interest and complexity to the finished dish and make it fit for a dinner party.

Amount
8 Portions

Ingredients
8 x 140g / 5oz Fillets of White Fish – Sole, Plaice, Turbot, Halibut
145ml / ¼ pt Fish Stock
14g / ½ oz Finely Chopped Shallot
145 ml / ¼ pt White wine
Butter
Seasoning

Method
Preheat the oven to 150C.
Butter a white ovenproof dish well. Add a seasoning of salt and pepper and then sprinkle the chopped shallots evenly over the base of the dish.
Place the fish fillets on top of the shallots in a single layer.
Pour over the white wine and fish stock.
Cover the dish with cling film and cook in the microwave for twenty seconds.
Remove the cling film from the dish and then place it in the oven at 150c for six minutes.

To Serve
Remove the fish from cooking essence and pat each fillet dry on kitchen paper . Serve on plate with an appropriate sauce, such as the Star Anis sauce. the Chablis and Shallots Butter sauce, or the Piquant sauce recipes also published on this blog.

Points to Watch
Allow the fish to stand in a warm place after cooking for a few minutes while you make the sauce. This will relax the fish.
Make sure the seasoning is put into the dish before the fish. If you season the white fish on top this will give you unattractive black spots of pepper.
Use the cooking essence to flavour the sauce.

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