Baked Lemon Sole with Capers, Butter & Samphire

Ingredients

• new potatoes, to serve
• black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp dry white wine
• 100 g butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 x 200g lemon sole fillets
• 3 tbsp capers, drained
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 200 g samphire, rinsed
• 15g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• Dressed green salad, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C. Lightly oil a large baking dish with the olive oil. Pat the sole fillets dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means a soggy fish — then season with black pepper and a light pinch of salt (go gentle here, the capers bring serious salt later). Arrange skin-side down in a single layer.
2. Scatter the rinsed samphire around — not over — the fillets so the fish stays exposed and steams cleanly. Samphire is already salty from the sea, so it gets no extra seasoning. Splash the white wine across the dish.
3. Melt the butter in a small pan over a medium heat until it stops foaming and smells nutty. Add the sliced garlic and cook just until fragrant — 30 seconds to a minute, until pale gold. Don't let it brown; burnt garlic turns the whole butter bitter and you'll taste it through every bite.
4. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the capers, lemon zest and half the chopped parsley. The residual warmth wakes the zest without scorching it.
5. Spoon the caper butter generously over each fillet and across the samphire, making sure every piece of fish gets a proper slick — this is what bastes the sole as it cooks.
6. Bake for 12–15 minutes, until the sole is opaque all the way through and flakes easily when pressed with a fork. The samphire should be glossy and just tender. Taste a strand of samphire and a spoon of the pan juices — adjust now, not at the table; if it needs a whisper more salt, add it, though the capers usually do the job.
7. Pull the dish from the oven and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice straight over the fillets — the acid cuts through the butter and lifts the whole dish.
8. Plate each fillet with a generous spoon of the caper butter and a tangle of samphire alongside, scatter the remaining parsley over the top, and bring it to the table with buttered new potatoes and lemon wedges.