Baked Dover Sole in White Sauce with Spinach and Rice

My husband and I like fish, and Dover sole has the advantage of having low mercury levels. It's often inexpensive, too. This dish calls for a white sauce similar to the cream sauce I make with the chicken penne recipe I posted a while back. I like to make spinach and white rice with it and pour the sauce over both.

You will need:

1 lb Dover sole fillets
salt
1 quarter of a lemon
1 cup whole plain yoghurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (I like the kind made with olive oil--less fat)
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups of white jasmine rice
1 box (10oz) of frozen, chopped spinach

rice cooker
nonstick cooking spray
baking dish
small bowl
whisk
silicone spatula
2 to 4 quart pot with lid
strainer

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Start the rice in the rice cooker. I put in a ratio of about 1:1.25 rice to water, so in this case, 1 1/2 cups of rice and just under two cups of water. If you do not have a rice cooker, follow the directions on the rice package.

Spray the baking dish with the nonstick cooking spray. Lay the filets in the dish as evenly as possible. Try to avoid making any part thicker than the rest, so that it will bake evenly. Squirt lemon juice from the lemon quarter over the fish. Sprinkle salt over it.

In the small bowl, mix the plain yoghurt and mayonnaise with the whisk until fully blended. With the spatula, scrape the sauce over the fish, and spread it so that it covers all of the fish. Run your fingers down the sprigs of thyme (against the angle of the leaves) to pull the leaves off, and sprinkle over the white sauce. Put it in the oven, and set a timer for 14 minutes.

Put the frozen chopped spinach in the pot, placing the lid on top, and heat on medium to medium high, flipping the block of spinach every so often until it comes apart. After that, stir it every couple of minutes. If it starts to stick to the bottom of the pot, lower the heat.

The rice should be done about at the same time as the fish and spinach. Start by pouring off the water that will have melted in the spinach, using the strainer. Then remove the fish from the oven. You can test it to make sure it's done by inserting a fork. If it's done the flesh of the fish will come apart easily--underdone fish will resist.

Plate the rice and spinach, then the fish, so you can scoop up white sauce from the fish and pour it on top of the rice and spinach. Serves 2-3 people. Enjoy!
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If you try one of my recipes, please leave a comment and tell me how it turned out!

Chicken Penne with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Zucchini in Cream Sauce

This one's decadent. There's more than one way to make a cream sauce and for this one I like to use some mayonnaise... blame my French half, I guess. You do have to be careful not to overdo it with the mayo because with the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes it can get very rich.

You will need:

12 oz penne pasta
1 large chicken breast, cut into medallions
salt
2-3 gloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
2/3 cup of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, sliced into pieces
2 large baby portobello mushrooms or 1 average adult portobello, finely diced*
2 zucchinis, cut length-ways and then sliced into half-rounds
2 leveled tablespoons of mayonnaise--I recommend the kind made with olive oil (less fat)
3 tablespoons of light sour cream
About a half a cup of nonfat or low fat milk (you'll be eyeballing this)

measuring cups
measuring spoons
a chef's knife (wide is best for crushing the garlic with the flat of the blade) 
large frying pan or wok
large crock pot
colander
resealable container
wooden or other type of spoon for stirring


Boil and strain the penne according to the package instructions.


While you wait for the water to boil and for the pasta to cook, put the garlic in the pan or wok with the chicken and just a sprinkle of salt. Add about a tablespoon of oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. Start off on high heat, so you brown the chicken a bit. One you see some browning, lower to medium-high. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and zucchinis, and treat it like a stir-fry: let it sit for no more than a minute or two between stirs.

While that cooks, put the mayonnaise, sour cream, and about a third cup of milk in the resealable container. Make sure the lid is on tight and shake. Open it up. The consistency should be creamy but pourable, like thick blue cheese salad dressing. If it is too thick, add more milk and shake again.

When the chicken and vegetables are almost completely cooked, pour the cream mixture in with them. The zucchini are your best indicators, here. The centers should start to look seedy and translucent but the green of the skins should still be bright. Lower the heat all the way and stir.

Right about at this point the penne should be ready to strain. Dish out the penne with the chicken mixture on top. Enjoy!

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* Portobellos can be spongy and unless you like that, cutting them into smaller pieces means they'll cook through and lose that spongy texture. Baby portos are less spongy than adult, in my experience.