flounder with brown butter

By madmax112

Ingredients

• Fish
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 4 sole fillets or flounder fillets, each 5 to 6 ounces and 3/8 inch thick, patted dry with paper towels
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 2 pieces
• Browned Butter
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 4 pieces
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice from 1 lemon
• 1 lemon , cut in wedges for serving
• Instructions

Details

Adapted from cooksillustrated.com

Preparation

Step 1

1.

1. FOR THE FISH: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, set 4 heatproof dinner plates on rack, and heat oven to 200 degrees. Place flour in large baking dish. Season both sides of each fillet generously with salt and pepper; let stand until fillets are glistening with moisture, about 5 minutes. Coat both sides of fillets with flour, shake off excess, and place in single layer on baking sheet. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until shimmering, then add 1 tablespoon butter and swirl to coat pan bottom; when foaming subsides, carefully place 2 fillets in skillet, bone-side down. Immediately reduce heat to medium-high and cook, without moving fish, until edges of fillets are opaque and bottom is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Using 2 spatulas, gently flip fillets (see illustration below) and cook on second side until thickest part of fillet easily separates into flakes when toothpick is inserted, about 2 minutes longer. Transfer fillets, one to each heated dinner plate, keeping bone- side up, and return plates to oven. Wipe out skillet and repeat with remaining 1 tablespoon each oil and butter and remaining fish fillets.
2.

2. FOR THE BROWNED BUTTER: Heat butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until butter melts, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly, until butter is golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes; remove skillet from heat. Remove plates from oven and sprinkle fillets with parsley. Add lemon juice to browned butter and season to taste with salt; spoon sauce over fish and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Technique

Flipping Fish Fillets

To easily turn fish fillets without breaking them, use two spatulas--a regular model and an extrawide version especially designed for fish. (In the test kitchen, we use a spatula that is 8 1/2 inches wide by 3 1/4 inches deep for this job.) Using the regular spatula, gently lift the long side of the fillet. Then, supporting the fillet with the extrawide spatula, flip it so that the browned side face up.