This fish recipe is for a fillet of plaice.  If looking for recipes for plaice, this pan-fried fillet of plaice will be ideal.

Ingredients – Serves 2 | Cooking time 10 mins

• 2 plaice fillets (approx. 150g each)
• 75g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 lemon
• Vegetable oil, to shallow fry
• Sea salt / pepper
• Small bunch watercress, to garnish

Getting everything ready

1. Use a sharp knife to trim the edges or ask your fishmonger to do this for you.  It will only take them a few seconds.
2. Place the flour into a shallow dish and season the flour to your personal taste with sea salt and freshly milled black pepper.
3. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat well, then pour into another shallow dish.
4. Cut the lemon into large wedges, removing any pips.  If you are going to serve lemon with your fish, it should be large enough to at least give you some lemon juice when squeezed rather than some flimsy thin slices that you find in some restaurants.
5. Wash and dry the watercress.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C (Gas Mark 3).

Method

1. Heat enough oil in a heavy-based frying pan to shallow fry the plaice fillets over a medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, while the oil is heating, pass the plaice through the beaten egg, making sure they are well coated, and then into the seasoned flour, again making sure the fish is well coated.  Carefully lay the plaice fillets into the hot oil.  Always lay the fish in away from you to avoid any splashes of hot oil and always lay the presentation side down into the oil first.
3. After about 2–3 minutes, carefully turn the plaice fillets over and cook on the other side for a further 2–3 minutes, until golden in colour.
4. Remove the plaice fillets from the frying pan and onto a baking tray. Place into the pre-heated oven to keep warm until all plaice fillets are cooked, to avoid crowding the frying pan in any one go.
5. When all the plaice fillets are cooked, carefully lay onto warmed plates and garnish with a nice small bunch of watercress and a good size lemon wedge.  Serve immediately.

Fillet of plaice – hints and tips

Passing the plaice fillets through the beaten egg and seasoned flour twice gives a nice crispy coating to the plaice.  It will also help keep the fish moist.

This is a nice way of frying lemon or Dover sole.

You can, if you so wish, ask your fishmonger to skin the fillets for you.  Keeping the skin on when shallow frying helps to stop the fillet from shrinking.  If you wish to keep the skin on, you can always ask for the fillets from the side with the white skin.

Other great tasting fish recipes