A Quick Late-Night Supper

A Quick Late-Night Supper

For a long time I was the type of shopper who would buy groceries for the week and even with all my best intentions, cook pretty boring meals.  There has been a sea change in how I shop now. I’m starting to discover that fresh food is my new best friend. As it relates to cooking fresh food has me going to the store every couple of days, but the trade off is vibrant exciting and simple food instead of processed, shelf stable, sodium laden crap. If you look hard enough and keep an open mind you’ll find some gems out among the plethora of food purveyors.

I have definite opinions about where to get the best produce.  It used to be I did all my shopping at Publix but as time went on I would realize that the produce they had was really not that appealing.  The next big store was Kroger.  I honestly think you can get better looking produce there and a larger variety. But this gem I’ve been talking about hiding among all the others is Nam Dae Num farmers market

nestled sweetly behind a defunct Block Buster Movie Rental building, a Bank of America, and a Sonic Drive in.

There are other stores for quality fresh food, Whole Foods, Fresh Market and Sprouts. There is a new Fresh Market being built very close by which will give me another option for fresh food.

That’s enough preaching about fresh food.  What's On the Burner? I decided to make Mary (my Wife) and I a late supper of Dover Sole with a lemon butter caper sauce and some grilled peaches.

The peaches take the longest. I cut 4 peaches in half and removed the pit. I have a grill pan that fits nicely on top of my gas range and I put it there and started to heat it up. Once it's gotten to a nice heat I lightly brush the grill with oil and also oil the flesh side of each peach half.

When the peaches are soft and have nice grill marks on them I removed them from the grill and placed them on a plate with tented aluminum foil.  Next comes the compound butter.  Take 1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature place in a bowl. Then add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.  Mix the butter mixture well.  When ready to plate the peaches put about 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon butter on flesh side of the peach.

Next came the Dover Sole. 

The common sole, Dover sole, or black sole is a species of flatfish in the Soleidae family. It has a preference for relatively shallow water with sand or mud covering the bottom. It is found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, from the south of Norway to Senegal, and in almost all of the Mediterranean Sea. Chefs prize Dover sole for its mild, buttery, sweet flavour and versatility, and for its ease of filleting. The fish yields fillets that hold together well in a variety of recipes.

I got three filets, about 1/2 lb total,  on sale at our local market. It was about $4.00 tops for that amount.  The filets are very light in color and somewhat delicate so I didn't want to get out the charcoal grill for these guys.

I patted the filets dry with a paper towel and then lightly seasoned them with salt and pepper--that's it. I put a couple of teaspoons of canola oil in a non-stick pan and cooked them on the first side for three minutes. I then flipped them and cooked the other side for two minutes.  Take them out of the pan and put them on a plate with an aluminum foil tent while you make the sauce.

The sauce was almost as easy as the fish. Take two tablespoons of butter and melt it in a small saucepan. Once melted take a spoon and remove the clarified butter leaving the solids behind. Clean out your saucepan and put the clarified butter back in.  Heat this up slowly while giving you time to juice one lemon. You'll need about two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.  While you're at it, take that rasp I told you about in the last recipe and zest one lemon, making sure you don't go to deep and get any of the white, bitter pith. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest to the clarified butter and lastly add one Tablespoon of capers. If you haven't tried these before be adventurous and go for it.  I think it lends an interesting taste to the sauce. When the sauce is heated through, but not boiling spoon over the fish and serve with those grilled peaches you just finished. 

This turned out to be a healthy, inexpensive and totally fresh late dinner that I'm sure you'll have great success with.

I hope you enjoyed this and don't forget to check us out next time to see "What's On the Burner."