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This classic French seafood dish is prepared with sole fillets that are lightly breaded in plain flour and pan-fried in butter. When the fish is ready, lemon juice is added to the pan and cooked shortly until all of the flavors are combined. The fish is typically seasoned with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley.
Even though fillets are usually employed in the dish, some like to use the whole fish, which is then traditionally filleted tableside in front of the guests. In traditional cuisine, the name meunière refers to the technique of cooking ingredients in brown butter and lemon juice or lightly coating the ingredients in flour before frying.
MOST ICONIC Sole meunière
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Saumon à l'oseille is a French dish consisting of a salmon fillet with sorrel in a creamy fish sauce. It's made with salmon, dry white wine, fish stock, crème fraîche, sorrel leaves, lemon, butter, shallots, and a bit of Marsala.
The shallots are sautéed in butter, then deglazed with Marsala. The fish stock and white wine are added to the sauce along with the cream. The salmon is fried, then combined with the sauce, which is enriched with a drizzle of lemon juice and mixed with sorrel.
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Roughly translated as in the manner of miller’s wife, the term à la meunière refers to a French cooking technique in which a whole fish or fish fillets are lightly dusted in flour and then sautéed in butter.
Traditionally, meunière dishes are made with white flesh fish and are commonly finished off with the addition of lemon juice and parsley, but the technique is easily adapted by replacing the main ingredients or incorporating additional elements such as capers or almonds.
VARIATIONS OF Meunière
MOST ICONIC Meunière
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Grilled sardines are a simple, traditional seafood dish especially common in coastal Mediterranean areas and during summer months, when fresh sardines are plentiful. The dish is straightforward and emphasizes the natural flavors of the sardines: they are typically marinated in a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, black pepper, and salt (although a variety of spices and herbs can also be added, depending on the region) before being grilled over a charcoal fire.
The dish is usually served as an appetizer or a part of a meze, along with bread, boiled potatoes, sautéed vegetables, or salads, and is best paired with lighter, sweeter local white wines.
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Originally a poor man’s dish, soupe de poisson à la rouille is a classic French soup and a close cousin of the famous bouillabaisse. The soup is usually prepared with white fish that is cooked in a flavorful broth that mostly incorporates tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, saffron, and various herbs.
The soup is then strained and served with rouille, a classic Provençal sauce that usually incorporates bread, garlic, spices, egg yolks, and olive oil while some versions can also include monkfish liver, tomatoes, or potatoes.
MOST ICONIC Soupe de poisson à la rouille
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Quenelles de brochet are a traditional French dish made from pike fish (brochet). These delicate dumplings are created by finely mincing the fish and combining it with a mixture known as a panade, which consists of milk, butter, flour, and eggs.
Heavy cream is often added to enrich the mixture, resulting in a smooth and light consistency. The mixture is then seasoned with salt, white pepper, nutmeg, and sometimes herbs like chives or parsley. The preparation of quenelles de brochet begins with making the panade.
MOST ICONIC Quenelles de brochet
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Poisson à la bordelaise is a traditional fish dish originating from Bordeaux. The dish is usually made with a combination of hake, cod or halibut, breadcrumbs, butter, white wine, lemon juice, garlic, shallots, olive oil, salt, and black pepper.
The garlic and shallots are chopped and sautéed in butter. White wine, breadcrumbs, lemon juice, salt, and pepper are added to the pan and simmered over low heat. The fish is placed into an ovenproof pan, and the fillets are covered with the mixture from the other pan and drizzled with olive oil.
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Merlu koskera is a traditional dish originating from the Basque region. The dish is prepared with hake (merlu), peas, mussels, asparagus, carrots, shallots, white wine, butter, garlic, eggs, thyme, bay leaves, and parsley. The hake is cut into fillets, then cooked with other ingredients.
When served, the hake is usually placed on the bottom and topped with hard-boiled eggs, peas, asparagus, and mussels. It is recommended to serve merlu koskera with crusty bread or new potatoes on the side.
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Brochet au four is a traditional fish dish originating from France. The dish is usually made with a combination of pike, onions, garlic, sorrel, butter, eggs, wine, cornflour, heavy cream, breadcrumbs, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.
The fish is scaled, gutted, washed, and stuffed with a combination of breadcrumbs soaked in cream, butter-sautéed onions, garlic, and sorrel; breadcrumbs, eggs, salt, and pepper. The opening is sewn shut and the stuffed pike is placed on top of the onions and herbs in a roasting tin.
The dish is seasoned with salt and pepper, dotted with butter, and roasted in the oven while being basted during the process. Once done, the pike is served on a platter with a warm sauce consisting of cornflour, heavy cream, and leftover onions and pan juices.
Once reserved only for the wealthy people, today the lamprey is a popular delicacy in the Bordeaux region, caught between December and May in the Dordogne and the Gironde estuary. The dish consists of lamprey stewed with cured ham, red wine, various fresh herbs, and vegetables such as leeks, onions, and garlic.
While preparing the dish, one must be careful to first hang the lamprey by the head before cutting its tail, in order to collect the blood. The blood is used in combination with Armagnac and wine sauce, and the lamprey is briefly flambéed in the mixture before being served, usually accompanied with garlic bread croutons and a glass of local red wine.
MOST ICONIC Lamproie à la bordelaise
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