Plaice baked in cream with chives

Plaice baked in cream with chives

This is a traditional dish from the South Coast of England. It is a proper fisherman's supper. If you have ever wondered; how can I make a fantastic fish dish with the least effort? The answer is this. In fact, if there was a Venn diagram showing where tasty dishes and simple dishes over lap, this one would be smack in the middle. You get the message; it's tasty and simple to cook. And the fact that this is being posted on a Monday evening tells you all you need to know. I managed to knock this up this evening while on a conference call.

Ingredients:

2 fillets of plaice (or sole would work just as well)

75ml of single cream

Small hand full of chives, finely chopped

About the same amount of parsley leaves finely chopped

2 knobs of butter

Juice from 1/4 of a lemon

Small sprinkling of nutmeg

Salt and Pepper for seasoning

The Cooking:

Preheat an over to 200 degrees centigrade.

With one of your knobs of butter, grease the base and sides of a small oven proof, shallow dish. Lay your plaice fillets inside then pour your cream over it until it's covered. If the fillets are too large to fit in, don't worry about tucking the edges in. No need to be neat with this. Sprinkle over the top a dash of nutmeg and salt and pepper, then pop it uncovered into your oven for 15 minutes. 

Just before the time is up, melt your second knob of butter in a skillet or small frying pan on a low heat. Once the time actually is up on the fish, plate up the fillets with a slotted fish slice, and pour the liquor from the dish it was baked in, into the melted butter. Squeeze the juice from your lemon segment, toss in the parsley and the chives and give it all a good stir with a wooden spoon, until everything is blended together and smooth. Spoon your sauce over your fillets.

Serve up with chips, creamy mash or rice and some seasonal fresh veg. Don't thank me. I know!!