Fried plaice is always delicious. This recipe for Plaice with pea and bacon purée adds lots of extra flavours. The bacon element in particular makes the purée a really luxurious dish – definitely not be confused with of mushy peas!
These ingredients will serve four people, allow about thirty minutes for preparation
Ingredients for Plaice With Pea And Bacon Purée
4 Plaice Fillets from Walter Purkis & Sons
8 rashers of smoked back bacon
Plain flour for dusting
Salt and pepper for seasoning
For the puree:
1 medium onion diced
5 rashers of smoked back bacon chopped
50g of butter
275g of peas (frozen is fine)
200g of peeled and diced potato – use King Edward or similar floury type
Sprig of fresh mint
Sprig of fresh thyme
Chicken stock
Cooking method for Plaice With Pea And Bacon Purée
First task is to cook your bacon. You can do this slowly in the oven (not the grill) and get nice flat crispy rashers. Set aside and keep warm.
To make the purée, fry the onion in the butter until soft and with a little colour together with the chopped bacon. Then add the peas, potato and the chicken stock also the mint and thyme sprigs. Season with pepper and a little salt – there will be plenty in the bacon. Bring to the boil.
Simmer gently until the potato is cooked and quite soft. Remove any stalks from the herbs. Then purée with a hand held blender. Don’t blend for too long as you will end up with soup. There should be some texture in the final stage. If its too thick you can always add some more chicken stock before serving to loosen it up.
To cook the plaice fillets pat dry with some kitchen towel and season them well with salt and pepper then dust them lightly with some plain flour.
Fry the fillets in a good amount of butter they will only need one or two minutes each side maximum.
To serve Plaice With Pea And Bacon Purée
Spoon a good spoonful of the puree onto the middle of a warmed plate and rest a fried plaice fillet on top. Then arrange two of the crispy bacon rashers on top and serve right away. You might like to add a lemon wedge on the side.
This recipe will work well with most other flatfish such as lemon sole or brill.
