The literal translation of Munière is “miller’s wife,” but in non-literal terms, it’s a common French sauce usually containing brown butter, chopped parsley and lemon. It’s an easy enough sauce to make and I’ve been using it lately for the beautiful cod fillets and cod loins that I see all the time in the local grocery store. The beauty of this dish is that you can easily turn it into a meal by steaming some veggies and sloshing them through the sauce you have left over at the end. It’s simple, easy and delicious – just what we need on busy days!
I’ve specified cod here because that’s what I normally make given that it’s usually available to me, however I have also used lemon sole, cod loins or haddock when making this dish and any of those work too. Really what you’re looking for is a fillet of boneless, skinless white, flaky fish. That said, if you’re going to get a skin-on fillet, that’s ok too, but you need to make sure you crisp up that skin properly, otherwise it’s going to be a bit slimy and gross.
If you don’t have a steamer, don’t worry. You can always boil the potatoes and green beans, but let me be the first to encourage you to buy one. I think the steamer I have is a super basic 2-tier metal one that was maybe £10 about 13 years ago from the high street and I still have it. It doesn’t need to be fancy to work and steaming gives you another great option for cooking vegetables and fish. Let’s get started!
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 2 cod fillets (haddock or cod loin will also work)
- Sea salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper
- 500g miniature new potatoes
- 200g fine green beans
- About a cup of plain flour for dredging the fillets
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Two generous knobs of butter, separated
- Juice of 1 lemon
- A handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
- Lemon wedges to serve
Method
- Pat the fish fillets dry with some paper towels and season on both sides with salt & pepper. Set aside for 5 or 10 minutes to let the salt work into the fish.
- Fill a two tier steamer with water and bring to a boil. (If you don’t have a steamer, fill two saucepans with salted water and bring them to a boil.) Add the minature new potatoes to one tray of the steamer and the green beans to the other. Salt both and put them over the water with the lid on until the potatoes are cooked through and the beans are as tender as you like them. Once done, drain off any excess water from both and keep warm.
- Spread the flour out on a plate or a clean surface and dredge the fish fillets, making sure there is a light dusting all over the surface area of the fish. Shake off any excess.
- Heat the oil and the first knob of butter in a large frying pan over medium heat until it starts to sizzle. Add the fish and fry gently until it’s cooked through and browned on the outside. I usually do this for about 4 or 5 minutes per side, but it will depend on the thickness of the fillets you use, so use your judgement. Once the fillets are fully cooked, gently use a spatula to transfer them to two dinner plates you will use for serving.
- Now it’s time to get on with the sauce. Add the second knob of butter to the frying pan and let it sizzle away until it’s brown and has a rich, nutty smell. Don’t be too nervous here – brown butter is what we want. When it’s caramel brown, squeeze in the lemon juice, give it a swirl in the pan.
- Drizzle the buttery sauce generously over both fish fillets, but leave some behind in the skillet.
- Return the pan to the heat again with what’s leftover of the sauce clinging to the pan and toss in the potatoes. Crank the heat up to medium-high and brown the potatoes slightly in the buttery sauce until they’re a little golden, shuffling them about with a spatula or spoon as you go. Once bronzed from the heat, transfer the potatoes to the two plates.
- Give the drained green beans a very quick toss in whatever is left from the sauce and plate them as well with a sprinkle of sea salt flakes.
- Serve the plates with a generous scattering of chopped parsley over the fish and potatoes and lemon wedges for sprinkling over the fish. Enjoy!
