Fish with Herb Butter:
Another Quick Supper Recipe

Feeling heavy and slow from food-centered gatherings with friends and family over the long weekend? Overeat at breakfast or lunch?

SOLE with HERB BUTTER is the cure. Quick to prepare and serve, there’s barely time to toss a salad.

ALANNA's TIPS Whether broiling, baking, grilling or frying, the guideline for cooking fish is to measure the thickest part, then cook 4 to 5 minutes per half inch. To test for doneness, insert a knife tip into the thickest point. The fish should be opaque with milky-white juices. If undercooked, the flesh will be translucent and the juices clear and watery. If overcooked, the flesh will be dry and fall apart. For precision, insert an instant-read thermometer, again at the thickest point; fish is cooked at 145F. For a delicate pleasure, skip the salt before broiling. Then, before serving, sprinkle the filet with a few grains of a finishing salt such as fleur de sel, a special-occasion salt harvested by hand from salt flats off the coast of France and then only on warm, breezy and rain-free afternoons. Its moist flakes are expensive but used in tiny quantities to highlight foods as such perfectly ripe tomatoes and fresh mozzarella balls. For an elegant plate, sprinkle the rim with chopped chive or dabs of fresh pesto.