Skip to main content

Fritters of Lemon Sole with Cucumber Pickle

Great British Menu's Tom Kerridge serves this easy but impressive starter when cooking for friends

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon sole and lemon work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 27 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep20 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: fish

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put the white wine vinegar, golden caster sugar, star anise, black peppercorns, coriander seeds and fennel seeds in a pan. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, then take off the heat.

  2. Thinly slice the cucumber into a bowl with a pinch of Maldon sea salt and the chopped dill. Pour the warm pickling liquid over, cover and chill for at least 1 hour.

  3. For the mayonnaise, whisk the egg yolk with the Dijon mustard, lemon zest and half the lemon juice. Slowly whisk in the 200ml vegetable oil until thick, then season with salt and the remaining juice. Use pasteurized egg yolk and chill.

  4. Warm the milk until lukewarm, whisk in the dried yeast and leave for 5 minutes until frothy. Whisk in the plain flour and a pinch of salt to a smooth batter, cover and rest for 30 minutes.

  5. Cut the lemon sole fillets into thick strips, season with salt and dust lightly with flour.

  6. Heat the oil for deep frying in a deep heavy pan to 350°F (180°C).

  7. Dip the sole strips in the batter and let the excess drip off. Fry in batches for 2 to 3 minutes until golden and the fish is opaque, flakes easily and reaches 145°F (63°C). Drain on paper towels.

  8. Serve the fritters hot with the pickled cucumber and the mayonnaise on the side.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Lemon sole + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Dill + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together976 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + dilltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together530 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cucumber + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. White wine + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,764 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the star anise

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, lemon sole, cucumber, dill, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  3. Peppermintbetter flavor fit
  4. Star anisethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, lemon sole, cucumber, dill, white wine, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).