Tilapia Meuniere

One of my favorite fish dishes is Sole Meuniere.

According to Julia Child! America’s Favorite Chef, When Paul Child took Julia to France for the first time, he took her to the oldest restaurant in France where they serveed her Sole Meuniere. It was that moment in which she fell in love with French Cooking.

I love this dish and marvel at the flavor extracted from three simple ingredients: Sole, butter, and a little parsley. It is also dirt-simple to make.

Unfortunately, the supermarket has been devoid of fresh sole for weeks. I decided to try something new: Prepare tilapia filets using the same recipe as I use for Sole Meuniere. It worked. The flavor was not the same (of course), but was great nevertheless. This is an experiment that is definitely worth repeating.

Tilpaia Meuniere

4 fresh Tilapia Filets
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespon fresh lemon juice.
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Season the fillets with salt and pepper. Dredge in flour and shake off any excess. Put a saute pan over medium heat and melt the butter. (Temperature is critical here. The temperature needs to be high enough to brown the fish but low enough not to brown the butter.) Place the tilapia in the pan. Saute until lightly/golden brown on the bottom side. Turn the filiets over and brown the other side.

Remove the filets, put them on a plate and tent with foil. Turn the heat up on the saute pan a bit and add the wine. Deglaze the pan. When the butter has turned a little brown, its done. Quickly stir in the lemon juice and remove from the heat.

Place a tilapia filet on each plate. Pour a little of the butter sauce over each filet, and sprinkle some parsley on each one.