Fried fillets of plaice with a nasturtium and mustard seed cream sauce recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Fish and Seafood | 5 comments
Photo: Plaice with nasturtium seed sauce
“Do you mind if I experiment with Duncan’s pickled nasturtium seeds to make a sauce for the fish tonight.”
I had found some cut priced fillets of plaice on the Tesco CFC.
“That’s fine as long as we’ve got some mayo.”
What Danny didn’t know was that we’d finally run out of the mayo that Miles and Jocelyn bring back from France. And as I didn’t have time to rustle up some homemade mayonnaise, this had to be a good sauce.
What I wanted was both taste and texture that would not overpower the delicate fillets of plaice.
The absence of mayo was not mentioned.
Thank you Duncan. The pickled nasturtium seeds are wonderful. Better than capers as they also have a kick. So despite the high winds I’m going to harvest all our nasturtium seeds today and make another batch of your superb recipe.
Fried fillets of plaice with a nasturtium and mustard seed cream sauce recipe – for two
Ingredients:
2-3 fillets of plaice
I tsp of plain flour
I heaped tsp of pickled nasturtium seeds – rinsed and then chopped roughly
Quarter tsp of anchovy sauce
I tsp of yellow mustard seeds
2-3 tbsp of dry white wine
2-3 tbsp of thick single cream
half a tsp of chopped Greek basil leaves
Half a tbsp of olive oil and a walnut sized nugget of butter
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
Method:
Gently heat the butter and olive oil in a frying or sauté pan and turn to a medium heat. Sprinkle both sides of the fillets with plain flour. Place them in the pan skin side down for two minutes. Gently turn them over to cook for another two minutes. Check that they are cooked (the flesh should be white rather than opaque) before removing them to a warm place.
Turn up the heat of the pan a bit and add the nasturtium seeds, anchovy sauce and white wine and let this bubble for 30 seconds before adding the cream. Add the chopped fresh basil leaves and stir continuously until the cream thickens. Remove from the heat and add freshly ground white pepper to taste.
I served this with frozen garden peas (since I discovered these I haven’t had a petit pois for years) and buttered baby potatoes in their skins.
Leave a reply
Hi Joanna
You could use sour cream, some tasty stock instead of wine and a squeeze of lemon juice and make a great sauce with that.
You can supplement your pns in any recipe that uses capers.
Duncan puts them on pizzas.
Hi Alex
It was very good. Hope that it turns out well for you.
Hello LVA
I love putting the raw seeds in salads too.
Hi Tamar
That’s a bit spooky.
I mean the seeds. Encouraged by your comment I ate my first flower last night. Good but not nearly as yummy as the seeds. They are pickled when they are green and can be used to pep up salads too.
We grow trailing nasturtiums which sprawl across the vegetable borders. They also have very plum seeds.
Fiona — We’ve got a weird, transcontinental nasturtium thing going. What are the odds that we’d both post about nasturtiums on the same day?
I ate my very first nasturtium yesterday, and immediately decided to plant them in the spring. But I have a stupid question — by “seeds,” do you mean the flower buds? Or the actual seeds?
I’m very glad to find this post, I have some nasturtium growing at the moment, only yellow and orange though. I haven’t tried any but I might add some to a salad. I love the variety of colours you have growing!
Best Regards,
Oh, I’ve got plaice on the menu this week – this looks great!
Brilliant! Finally a recipe for those pickled nasturtium seeds, pity I don’t have the anchovy sauce or the cream or the white wine. The only cream you get out in the sticks is sour cream – very nice it is though, white wine we never have as hubby doesn’t like it and it upsets my stomach and I have no idea if I can get anchovy sauce or not in this country or maybe just in Riga. Oh dear! Will have to wait for another recipe to try with those pickled nasturtium seeds.