This dish will make a serious impression during your dinner parties. The flavour combination is amazing: sole, fennel and beetroots. The beetroots are salt-baked; so make sure you start early or make them a day earlier as they need about 2,5 hours in the oven. But it’s so rewarding: they’ll be incredibly flavoursome! I add a bit of rosemary to the salt, but you can substitute it with thyme or another herb for extra flavour. And then you have the amazing (and simple) sauce: creamy and fishy with a touch of fennel. It’s just SO GOOD!
Ingredients
Difficulty
For 2 persons
- 2 medium-sized beetroots
- 500 gr salt
- 1 teaspoon rosemary
- 1 egg white
- 1 fennel
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 cube fish stock
- 250 ml double cream
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 5 black pepper corns
- 2 soles, filleted
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Directions
- Preheat the oven at 190ºC.
- Clean the beetroots thoroughly. Roughly chop the rosemary and mix them with the salt and egg white.
- Cover an oven tray with baking parchment. Spread a layer of the salt mixture in the middle. Place the beetroots on top and cover completely with the rest of the salt. Make sure you don’t leave holes open.
- Bake the beetroots 2,5 hours.
- Break the salt crust open, remove the baked beetroots and peel them.
- Prepare the fennel. Remove the green tops of the fennel and the hard center. Shop it in thin slices.
- Heat the butter in a pan and cook the fennel on medium heat until completely soft. Season to taste with a bit of salt and pepper.
- For the sauce, dissolve the stock cube in hot water, bring to a boil with the fennel seeds and peppercorns and reduce by half.
- Add the cream and reduce again by half. Strain and set aside.
- Brush the sole filets with olive oil and season them with salt and pepper. Place them one next to each other in an oven dish.
- Bake them under the oven grill, about 7 minute.
- Slice the beetroots.
- If needed, warm up the sauce and blitz it with a mixer or in a blender to get a creamy and airy texture.
- To serve, scoop the fennel on a plate, place the beetroot slice next to it and top with the sole filets. Drizzle a bit of the sauce and enjoy!
