a picture of fried fish on a piece of paper with a lemon and a fish slice

Fried Plaice Fillets with a Herb and Polenta Crust

4 minutes - 6 minutes

Serves 2

This recipe is from The Delia Collection: Fish.

A good way to avoid making breadcrumbs, and therefore save time, is to keep a packet of polenta (cornmeal) in the cupboard.

It makes an excellent coating for all types of fish, and here we've used it, along with garlic, herbs and lemon, to coat plaice fillets. You can also use lemon or Dover sole instead of plaice.

The Delia Online Cookery School: Have you seen Delia's ingenious method for shallow frying fish in our cookery school video on this page?

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Method

This couldn't be simpler.

Just combine the herbs, garlic and polenta on a flat plate. Then add the lemon zest along with a good seasoning of salt and pepper. Mix it all evenly, then wipe the plaice fillets with kitchen paper. Beat the egg in a shallow dish, dip the fillets in the egg and coat them with the polenta mixture, pressing it on well.

Now take a very large frying pan and heat the oil in it over a high heat. When it is good and hot add the fish, then turn the heat down to medium and cook the fish for about 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness. Drain on absorbent kitchen paper and serve on hot plates with the lemon juice squeezed over.

You can also watch How to Shallow Fry Fish in our Cookery School Video on this page.