Ever had one of those fish dishes where they are stuffed with all sorts of goodness like shrimp and other yummy fruits of the sea? These dishes have long been a favourite of mine but quite often there’s also lots of cream in these dishes. I don’t mind cream but what if I told you could have a creamy sauce without the cream in them? What if I told you can easily reproduce those fancy stuffed sole dishes you see at restaurants? Stick around, let’s cook!

Last year I made a creamy lemon sauce without the use of cream or the addition of corn starch to thicken it. The thickener for my sauce is simply rice. What’s going on here is the exact opposite of what you want to occur with rice – we’re cooking until it’s soft, mushy and the starches have been released. Once those starches are released and the rice is cooked, simply puree the liquid and rice and voila – you have a creamy sauce!

The stuffed sole isn’t too hard. I’ve opted to use my mini food processor to better combine all the filling ingredients except for the shrimp. The shrimp are chopped (cut into 2 or 3 pieces) so that you get nice little bites of shrimp on your fork. The most important step in successfully stuffing and rolling a fillet of fish is which side to place the filling on.

Your fillet has two sides: the smooth side of the fillet is where the skin of the fish used to be and the other side is the inside of the fillet, where the spine and pin bones once were. The outside (skin side) of the fish will shrink faster that the inside part of the fillet so it’s important that the skin side of fillet faces up – in contact with your filling. Now you simply roll-up your filling in the fillet and your roll will shrimp properly and it will stay and intact (containing all your filling).

There you have it – a fancy restaurant meal prepared with ease in your own home!

Shrimp Stuffed Sole With Lemon Sauce (Γεμιστες Γλωσσες με Σαλτσα Λεμονιου)

(serves 4)

Ingredients

• 4 sole fillets
• 16 medium-sized shrimp (21/25 count), peeled and deveined and cut in half
• 4 scallions, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup of parsley, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup of red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tsp. Dijon-style mustard
• 2 Tbsp. of extra-virgin olive oil
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• extra olive oil for drizzling fish
• juice of 1 lemon
• sweet paprika
• 1 cup of water
• Pre-heated 375F oven

Instructions

• Rinse your fish fillets and thoroughly pat-dry and set aside.
• Add the scallions, red peppers, parsley, mustard, bread crumbs, olive oil and pulse into your food processor and spin for 3-4 times or until the mixture is blended and holds together well.
• Empty into a bowl and the shrimp. Season lightly with salt and pepper and set aside.
• Squeeze some lemon juice over the fish fillets and season both sides lightly with salt and pepper.
• To ensure that your rolls retain their shape, place the fillets with the outside side of the fillet facing up (this side will be stuffed).
• Divide the shrimp stuffing in four and spoon in the center of your fillets.
• Roll-up your fillets beginning from the wide-end of the fillet and secure with a toothpick.
• Place your rolls in a baking pan and pour water around the fish, then add the wine and another good squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle with olive oil.
• Sprinkle the tops of the rolls with some salt, fresh ground pepper and sweet paprika & place in your pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes or until fish are opaque.
• In the meantime, add the stock (or water), lemon slice and olive oil in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
• Now reduce to a simmer, then add the rice.
• Stir for a minute, cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes and stirring occasionally (you don’t want the rice to stick to your bottom/burn).
• Check to see if your rice is cooked, then remove from the heat and remove the slice(s) of lemon.
• Puree in a blender or with hand blender until creamy.
• Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, extra lemon juice.
• Cover, keep warm.
• As soon as your fish is cooked, divide and plate (remove toothpicks) and spoon some sauce over each roll of fish.
• Garnish with some chopped fresh dill or fennel fronds and serve with green beans & rice pilaf.