From Julie & Julia (2009)
Sole Meunière
Reconstructed
Serve when
Serve it at the very first bite in Rouen — the forkful that makes Julia close her eyes and decide, then and there, to learn to cook.
In the movie
Theatrical
- Julia Child's culinary awakening: newly arrived in France, she eats sole meunière at a restaurant in Rouen and calls it the best thing she has ever tasted — the meal that sets the whole story in motion.
Ingredients
Steps
- Pat the sole very dry and season with salt and white pepper. Dredge in flour and shake off all excess — a thin coat, no more.
- Heat the clarified butter in a large skillet until it shimmers. Lay in the sole and fry until golden, 3–4 minutes, then turn once and finish, basting. Move to warm plates.
- Pour out the frying butter. Add the cold butter to the pan and cook to a nut-brown beurre noisette, then take off the heat and add the lemon juice — it will foam.
- Stir in the parsley and spoon the butter over the fish at once.
- Serve immediately with lemon wedges. It should taste of exactly three things done perfectly: fish, butter, lemon.
In the movie
"The whole experience was an opening up of the soul and spirit for me." Julia's first meal in France — sole meunière, browned butter, a squeeze of lemon — is where the film locates the spark. It's not an elaborate dish; it's a simple one executed flawlessly, and that contrast is the point. Everything that follows, two books and two kitchens later, starts with this plate.