Skip to main content

Pan-fried Dover Sole with a Shrimp and Caper Butter Sauce and Wilted Spinach

Surprise yourself and create this classic restaurant dish easily at home. Look for a nut-brown colour in the butter (beurre noisette) before squeezing in the lemon juice to lock in the colour and flavour.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pan-fried Dover Sole with a Shrimp and Caper Butter Sauce and Wilted Spinach

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

820Calories
40 gProtein
28 gFat
104 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 12 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Shrimp100g cooked99
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Spinach1 cup raw (30g)7
Watercress1 cup (34g)4
Capers1 tbsp (9g) drained2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Relishnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Shallot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, olive, butter, shallot, capers, parsley, shrimp):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, olive, butter, shallot, capers, parsley, shrimp. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.