French Recipes/ Seafood

Fish Fillets in White Wine Sauce (Filets de Poisson Dugléré)

Filets de Poisson Dugléré

This is a dish that I learned at the Le Cordon Bleu School in Paris and it has a very special background. It was invented by the French chef, Adolf Dugléré (1805 – 1884) who was chef for the Rothschild family and was named the ‘Mozart of Chefs’ by Rossini. Dugléré eventually became the head chef of Café Anglais, the most famous Paris restaurant of the 19th century.

Despite its distinguished background, this dish is not too difficult to make. I recently taught this recipe to my French Cooking Class in Adelaide and everyone gave it the thumbs up (and seemed to enjoy filleting their own fish)!

Adolf Dugléré

Chef-Adolphe-Dugléré

Any fish recipe served Dugléré- style means it is cooked with diced tomatoes, onions and parsley and is topped with a delicious buttery sauce made with fish stock. You will get the best result by using real homemade fish stock,  but store-bought stock will be alright.

For my home-made fish stock, I filleted my fish (snapper) and used the bones to make the stock. The fish bones are added to a pan with water, white wine, some onion and shallots and some herbs- the stock only needs 20 minutes to cook. (For detailed instructions on how to fillet a fish, refer to my post How to Fillet a Fish- and not die trying!)

Home-made Fish Stock

Ingredients

  • Fish bones
  • 1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
  • 2 shallots
  • 1 garlic clove, flattened
  • 1 tbsp. butter
  • several sprigs each of parsley and thyme
  • 100 ml dry white wine
  • water

Directions

  • Fillet the fish. Chop the fish bones into several parts using a cleaver; let soak in a pan of water for several minutes to remove any impurities. (You can use the head of the fish to make the stock, but you should remove the eyes first).
  • Remove the skin from the fish and any small pin-bones from the flesh. Set the fish aside.
  • To make the fish stock, roughly chop the onion and shallots and flatten the garlic clove. Add the butter to a large saucepan and sweat these veggies until translucent. Add the fish bones, white wine, parsley and thyme to the pan; add enough water to cover the bones and the other ingredients. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes and then strain.

You now have your fresh fish stock (‘liquid gold’) ready to make the rest of the dish.

Fish Fillets in White Wine Sauce (Filets de Poisson Dugléré)

Recipe adapted from Le Cordon Bleu Paris

Sauce

  • 100 ml white wine
  • 300 – 400 ml fish stock (homemade or store-bought)
  • 125 g butter
  • salt/pepper

Vegetable Garnish

  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 2 shallots, diced
  • 3 medium or large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
  • 2 tbsp. finely chopped parsley

Directions

  • Prepare the vegetable garnish: remove the skins from the tomatoes: remove the top core of each tomato and place an ‘x’ on the bottom. Place each tomato into a pan of boiling water until the skin loosens. Remove from the pan and immediately place into a bowl of ice water to stop further cooking of the tomato. Remove the tomato skins and cut into quarters. Remove the seeds and then finely dice the tomatoes.
  • Chop finely the ½ onion and two shallots.
  • Butter a fry pan generously. Over medium heat, add the onions and shallots first to the pan, then add the tomatoes and fish pieces. Season with salt and pepper, then add the 100 ml wine on top.

Duglere tomates

 

  • When the fish stock is ready, pour this over the fish mxture, just enough to cover the fish and vegetables. Cover and cook over medium heat for 7-8 minutes until the fish is cooked (do not over-cook).
  • Finish the sauce: remove the fish from the pan and cover with foil. Let the sauce reduce for 6-10 minutes, then gradually add 125 g cold butter cubes to thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Duglere sauce

  • To Plate: place one piece of fish in the centre of the plate, then top with some of the sauce. Sprinkle with the diced parsley.

Duglere

 

 

 

 

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7 Comments

  • Reply
    Kumar's Kitchen
    April 29, 2015 at 8:10 pm

    what a beautiful way with fish….loved the combination of tomatoes and that buttery rich sauce….yum and perfect,thanks 🙂

  • Reply
    John@Kitchen Riffs
    April 29, 2015 at 11:01 pm

    Fish stock really is liquid gold, isn’t it? I love fish prepared in white wine — just perfect, IMO. Haven’t had this recipe, but you know I will! Thanks so much.

  • Reply
    Juliana
    May 1, 2015 at 2:02 pm

    Wow Fran, this fish dish really sounds an looks tasty…like the white wine in the fish stock sauce…beautifully done…now in regards to filleting my own fish…that it will not happen in the near future…hehehe!
    Hope you are having a wonderful week…and thanks for the recipe 🙂

  • Reply
    Gourmet Getaways
    May 1, 2015 at 4:03 pm

    So nice to see your dishes off from school classes…Plating looks good, too. Thanks for sharing, Fran!!

    Julie & Alesah
    Gourmet Getaways xx

  • Reply
    Amira
    May 9, 2015 at 3:01 am

    This is a lovely way to cook fish. I’ll try to make it without the wine and see if it will still be great.. do you have any idea in mind for a wine sub? What kind of fish did you use?

    • Reply
      Fran
      May 9, 2015 at 10:31 am

      Amira, thanks for your reply. To substitute white wine for this recipe, you can use White Wine Vinegar, which contains the flavors of white wine, without the alcohol. Or, you could use white grape juice mixed with a bit of white vinegar for the substitution (use 1 tbsp. of vinegar for each cup of grape juice). Hope you enjoy this dish!

  • Reply
    Kathy @ Beyond the Chicken Coop
    May 10, 2015 at 9:43 pm

    This is a beautiful looking dish. I think it will be one to save for special guests I can wow. Although I probably need to do a practice one first!

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