Fish Filets Poached in White Wine with Mushrooms & Cream Sauce

Filets de Poisson Bercy aux Champignons & sauce à la crème

"Most of the famous French Dishes involving filet of sole center around fish poached in white wine and coated with a lovely, creamy sauce made from the poaching liquid." - Julia Child

Say no more Julia... throw it over some pasta and I'm in! Tonights dish was very easy, although when I was reading through the recipe and got to the 'Butter brown paper' part, I was wondering if it was going to more difficult than I first anticipated. But it wasn't... just a few simple steps  & in about 15 mins you'll be eating dinner.

Recipe continued after the jump...

Step 1: Preheat oven at 350°, and get a large pot of water started for the angel hair pasta.

Step 2: Toss sliced mushrooms and minced shallots in 1 Tb hot butter over medium heat for a few minutes until browned, then seasoning with S&P.
Step 3a: Cover the bottom of your baking dish with half of the mushrooms/shallots.
Step 3b: Layer your seasoned (S&P) sole filets over the top, and then cover with the remaining mushrooms/shallots.

Step 4: Pour about 1 cup of simmering white wine over the fish (to barely cover your fish) and then cover it all with buttered brown paper to poach.
Step 5: Cook in the oven at 350° for about 10 minutes.
Step 6: After the fish has poached in the oven, remove the brown paper and place a lid over the dish to pour the poaching liquid into a small sauce pan. (Or... have your boyfriend do it so you don't burn yourself. :D Thank you David!) Keep the fish & mushrooms in your baking dish.
 - Add your angel hair pasta to your boiling water now... it cooks about 5 minutes so it will be done right about the same time as your fish.

Step 7: Boil to reduce the poaching liquid to about 1 cup & briefly remove from the heat for step 8.

Step 8: Blend 2.5 Tb of flour with 3 Tb of soft butter (and I ended up added about 2 Tb oregano to the blend as well) & beat into the liquid, then mix in 1/2 cup of whipping cream.

Step 9: Place back onto the heat & bring to a boil. Thin out the sauce by slowly pouring about a tablespoon or two of cream. (And I add one more Tb of butter after.)

Step 10: Season to taste with S&P and drops of lemon juice.

Step 11: Spoon the cream sauce over the fish & sprinkle on the 1/3 cup of Swiss cheese. Top with 2 Tb cubed butter and place under the broiler for 3 to 4 minutes to slightly brown the sauce.

And serve... it's yummy! I tend to think of fish as a light dinner but with the pasta and the cream sauce, it was a very hearty meal.

Tips: Julia's recipe called for 2.5 lbs of sole. I ended up using about 2 lbs, and I still thought it was a little bit too much fish. I modified your ingredients list to 1 lbs because I think that would have been then perfect amount. She also said not to brown the mushrooms in the recipe... which I followed, but since the dish doesn't cook very long they were not as soft as I prefer my mushrooms. I modified these steps to brown the mushrooms, I think they would have been much better if they were a little bit softer. But you can make that call depending on how you like your mushrooms. :D 

ENJOY!

(Recipe courtesy of Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. 1)