Oli
Oli
Resident eejit. Radio4, kitchen dancing, owning recipe books to read not follow
May 17, 2022 2 min read

White fish with a parsley sauce

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I saw somebody on twitter posting about making white fish in a parsley sauce and their memories to bland boil in the bag from the 1990s. I don’t remember those (and I didn’t get school dinners), and I have tonnes of parsley growing at the moment, so I figured I’d give it a go.

Rather than making the sauce and then cooking the fish in it I decided to poach the fish in the milk and then use the milk to make the sauce.

You will need

  • a piece of fish each. We had a couple of piece of Pollock from FishBox.
  • Enough milk to cover your fish in a small pan
  • A slice of butter off the block, about half a centimeter
  • A big heaped teaspoon of plain flour
  • A couple of teaspoons of horseradish sauce, or a little grated horseradish
  • A small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
  • A bay leaf

Do

  • Heat the milk, horseradish and bay together until the milk it too hot to put your finger in but not boiling
  • Slide the fish in, cover and poach for ten minutes or so, turning the fish once, until the fish is cooked though
  • Lift the fish out, keep it to one side (I pop it on a plate and then pop another one over the top to keep it warm)
  • Pour off the milk into a jug and wash the pan
  • Melt the butter, add the flour and cook until it’s starting to brown (don’t panic if it clumps up)
  • Gently add the milk back, stirring all the time
  • Once it starts to come together and thicken add the parsley and salt to taste
  • Add back the fish, turn the heat down and cook for a few minutes
  • Remove the bayleaf and serve (I added peas and airfrier roast potatoes)

Result

Gentle, subtle and comforting. Horseradish sauce was a little sweet, next time I’ll use raw horseradish.

Poaching Fish now cooked Making the roux Adding back the fish GET IN MY FACE