I suppose there are restaurants which still serve this dish , it seems to me to have left us , along with palm trees and orchestras and waiters who performed what we used to call lamp work at the table.

It is still my very favourite method of cooking this most delicious fish and here. for the benefit of all of you people who never experienced the above is how it is done.

Properly called Sole a la Belle Meunière which is to say Sole in the Style of the Beautiful Miller’s Wife, has been the classic method of cooking Black Sole from at least the turn of the last century and up until the 1970’s
I made a few attempts to introduce it on to the menu in Dwyers in the Eighties and Nineties but to no avail, almost inevitablely the waiters would arrive back into the kitchen apologetically and say that “table six would like the sole but would you fillet it for them ?” .
The whole point of Sole Meunière is that it is always cooked on the bone.
This I believe is the cause of its demise.
Originally of course the customer didn’t have to do anything as vulgar as lift the meat off the bone , the fish would have been fried at the table on a little portable stove by your waiter who , having quickly fried it, would with a very practiced few flicks of the wrist ,reduce it to four neat fillets on your plate.
These days are now gone , but we can still enjoy this dish at home.

First select your Sole.
This must be a true Black Sole , what the English call a Dover Sole.
Lemon Sole (really a type of Dab ) won’t do at all , neither will Plaice.

It should weigh in at about 250g, (8 oz.). Smaller ones , called slip sole , are much more of a fiddle as you may have to do two per person but they should be cheaper. Larger Sole , up to 500g are possible to share between two but take longer to cook.

Now the second point is that the fish must not be too fresh , it should be about 24 hours out of the sea . No problem normally but just check with your fish monger. If it is too fresh it is very difficult to skin and the meat can be a little resilient . Nothing that can not be fixed by letting it spend a day in your fridge at home and eating it the following one.

There is no need to get it either cleaned or scaled by the fish monger.
Just take it home and tackle it yourself.
First thing you need to do is to skin it.
Black skin first.
With a sharp knife cut off about a half inch of the tail , then (rather like finding the start on a roll of Cellotape) – and some salt on your fingers helps -find a start on the thin black skin and gently, but firmly , pull it off the whole length of the sole. If it should break while you are doing this just find another point to start again.
Now turn the sole over and do exactly the same with the white skin on the other side.

Now lay the fish out on the board and, with the tail towards you , fan out the side bones which form the frill on the sides of the fish.
Again with a good scissors , cut these in as closely as you can to the fish it self.
Discard these and the skin.

Now you can either make a small incision near the head and squeeze out the innards, or do what I do, cut off the head entirely and then wash out the stomach under running cold water.

Either way give the fish a quick rinse and then pat dry.

Now for each fish you have got ready, assemble for your self ;
Some seasoned flour on a large plate
Some olive oil for frying
and about
50g (2 oz.) of Butter
A teaspoon of finely chopped Parsley
One half Lemon
A good grating of black pepper
and a pinch of salt (only if you are using unsalted butter)

Melt the butter gently in the pot, add in the parsley and lemon juice and pepper and let it infuse gently off the heat while you cook the sole.

By the way it is essential at this stage that all the other elements of this meal – the potatoes (little sautied cubes are good ) and the veg (some crisp broccoli or some french beans) are cooked and being kept warm.

Now put some flour on a plate (this is where the Belle Meunière came in ) and give both sides of the fillet a light coating of flour.
Put some oil on to your best pan (non-stick is good) and when this is very hot fry your soles (no more than two at a time) for about two minutes a side.
They should brown nicely in this time and the flesh should be moist and delicious within- they will however remain un damaged in a warm place while you cook the others.

Only when all the other elements for the meal are ready and on the table, and your soles are sitting on their warmed plates will you put the butter on to heat.
Let this heat until it bubbles and colours just a little and then spoon this over each sole.

Now it is the turn of your guests to do a little work.
Let them run their knives down the back of their fish along the back bone and then lift the fillet to one side on their plate.
(This is the moment for them to check that none of the little bones on “the frill” escaped your scissors )
Now they can easily lift out the central bone from the bottom fillets (give them a plate on which to put their discards)

Then they can set to to enjoy what is , both Síle and I agree , the most delicious of all fish dishes.