Pan fried Sole with black-eyed beans salad
A Pan Fried Sole with a crispy crust and a Greek-inspired black-eyed pea salad are enough for a perfectly balanced, tasty, and healthy meal ready in 30 min!
Fresh Sole or frozen?
The common Sole (or Dover sole) is a species of marine flatfish widely found around the coasts of Europe. It is very tasty and popular in my country because it can be found already filleted and frozen in the supermarkets. It does not require a lot of cooking, it has very few bones, and goes well with salads and French fries.
For this recipe, you can use both fresh or frozen!
The fresh Sole has a very tough skin and it’s hard to filet but it has very few bones and if you can hack the filleting then, by all means, go for a fresh one because it is tastier than the frozen.
The frozen Sole is usually found at supermarkets already filleted and without any bones but it is very small compared to the fresh ones, often half their size. Fresh or Frozen both shrink a lot in the pan when you fry them so from what you see, you should usually expect half of it as a final product. If you enjoy eating fish but don’t like to fillet them yourself, this is a perfect choice!
4 secrets for a perfect pan-fried crispy coating that stays on
- First, you need to pat dry the fish fillet very well.
- Then, you need to put it on the fridge for at least 30 min, ideally an hour. The cold air of the fridge helps dry the fish even more and bolsters its consistency preparing it to accept the flour coating. In that way, the flour coating stays on the fish and provides a crispy flour coating when you fry it.
- Using two types of flour for coating it. I use plain all-purpose flour and cornflour, in equal amounts. This combo makes for a thin but crispy skin when you fry it.
- The amount of vegetable oil that you will add to the pan also plays a big role in a crispy crust. The oil should not exceed the thickness of the fish.
Black-eyed beans salad
The Black-eyed beans/pea salad is very easy to make. First, boil the black-eyed beans and drain them just before serving the salad*. Then cut the tomato and cucumber into cubes and finely chop the parsley, onion, and spring onion. Just before serving, add the juice of 1 lemon, olive oil and season with salt.
Pan fried Sole with black-eyed beans salad
Ingredients for the fish:
- 2 Sole fillet fresh or frozen
- Vegetable oil for pan-frying
- 3 Tbsp All-purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp Cornflour (the yellow one)
- Salt / Black Pepper
Ingredients for the salad:
- 1 cup Black-eyed beans boiled
- 1 fresh tomato diced
- 1 small cucumber diced
- 1 cup of parsley finely chopped
- 1 Lemon its juice
- 1 onion very finely chopped
- 1 spring onion cut into rounds
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- Salt to taste
Instructions for the fish:
- Gut, clean, and fillet the Sole.
- Pat them dry with a kitchen paper/towel and put them in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer
- Season them with salt and pepper on both sides
- Mix both flour types in a bowl and flour both sides of the fish
- Fry over high** heat with vegetable oil until they get golden, about 1 ½ min each side.
- Remove on kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil.
- Serve with the black-eyed beans salad
Instructions for the black-eyed beans salad:
- Fill a big bowl with water, give them a good wash, and drain them.
- Fill a pot with fresh water, add the black-eyed beans, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and let them simmer for 7 minutes.
- Drain them in your kitchen sink and add them again into the pot with fresh water and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and let them simmer for about 30 min. Depending on the brand, variety, and age of the beans some require less and others more time to cook.
- Cut all ingredients for the salad, add them in a bowl, add the cooked black-eyed beans* mix well and just before you are ready to serve add the lemon juice.
Notes:
- *If the boiled beans stay at room temperature without any liquid surrounding them for a long time, they start to peel their skin. They must be either soaked under liquid or be kept on the fridge until you serve them.
- **The heat for frying should be high but not the maximum.
- Fish, Healthy, Recipes
- Black-eyed beans, Black-eyed peas, fish, pan fried, salad, Sole
- MEAL: Lunch
- COURSE: Main
- CUISINE: Mediterranean
- Recipe by: Christine Karagianni
Did you make this recipe? Or are you planning to make it? Let me know in the comments below, tag me on Instagram @freshpiato or show me your photos on Pinterest!
