>> MING: Hey, Ming Tsai here with Simply Ming.

Got a really classic dish today.

We're starting with a Vesper.

It's what James Bond, 007, used to drink-- shaken, not stirred.

And then, sole meunière, the classic French dish.

So simple, five ingredients: sole, lemon, parsley, butter, salt-- that's it.

Lastly, a vegan version of sole meunière using Napa cabbage and coconut butter.

It's all coming up, plus Henry, right here, right now, on Simply Ming.

♪ ♪ >> Simply Ming is brought to you by Subaru of New England, proudly celebrating 50 years of love.

Authorized retailers at SubaruOfNewEngland.com.

Here's to the next 50 years and beyond.

>> MING: So, Vesper.

It's a funny cocktail in the sense that we actually mix gin with vodka.

And, by the way, guys, this is not a mild drink.

This is why you need to be 007, right?

This is three ounces of a high-quality gin and one ounce of vodka.

So it's a four-ouncer.

This is an ounce and a half right there.

All right?

There's three ounces, okay?

So this is a good strong drink, okay?

Again, get the best-tasting vodka that you can get and we do one ounce of that.

Then on top of that, we add a little Lillet Blanc.

And there you just add just half an ounce.

That's the drink, guys.

Really simple, easy to make.

And the key for all martinis is, you guys, shake the dickens out of it.

And I guess Bond was shaken, not stirred.

So we're gonna go really hard on the shake until my left hand is super-cold.

And what Henry's doing there is, he's squeezing some fresh orange juice.

And you're gonna do three parts of iced tea, which we have chilling in the fridge there, and then one part of your O.J.

So it really has nothing to do with this, but you can't have three parts gin nor one part vodka.

Sorry, Hen.

>> Okay, heard that.

>> MING: Not yet.

So... >> I'll wait a bit.

>> MING: You want to see those ice crystals.

And, check this out, guys.

This is key.

I actually have sparkling water.

Why?

Well, I like sparkling water.

But to pre-chill a martini glass, the bubbles of water... ...really give you a nice frost.

Look at that frost on this glass.

All right?

Then to this, we're going to take...

I like to pour it from the glass.

And we're gonna pour this right in.

And you can see there's a little bit of ice crystals.

And this is a big martini glass with a big pour.

Then we're going to just add just a little lemon flag.

So I take the lemon-- you don't want any of the white part-- I give it a good twist.

Rub the rim.

Drop it in.

>> Wow.

>> MING: Because this is so ice-cold, I'm gonna cheers to you, Henry.

And cheers to all of you.

And then we're gonna make your drink.

>> Sure thing.

(Ming slurps and exhales) >> MING: Love it.

High-quality gin, high quality of vodka, Vesper is awesome.

So, Henry, for your drink, fill this up with ice, sir.

>> Can do.

>> MING: And what we're gonna do for Henry is, we just have a brewed iced...

This is a brewed black tea, nice and dark.

It could be any tea.

In my humble opinion, the darker the better, since we're adding orange juice to it.

And Henry juiced fresh orange, which is by far the best way to go.

That's perfect, sir.

All right.

Vesper, move aside.

Pour a little of this... All right, Henry, add your juice on top of that.

>> That's good.

>> MING: Take your time.

Juice your orange.

Keep going, keep going.

Perfect.

Let me grab a little chopstick for you, Henry.

Give this a little stir.

>> All right.

Stirred, not shaken?

>> MING: Yes.

Stirred, not shaken.

I'd put a little bit more ice in there, Henry.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Trying to fill it.

I think it's key, especially with iced tea, when you freshly brew it.

Go ahead, take a big sip and put some more ice in there, sir.

See if it's... First of all, do you like it?

You like... You're a big Arnold Palmer fan.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> MING: How's that?

>> That's good.

>> MING: All right, top yourself with more ice, and we're good to go.

All right.

So two very simple cocktails, guys.

Henry, cheers to you.

>> Cheers to you.

>> MING: I wish I had yours.

(Ming mouthing, Henry laughing) No, I don't.

>> Uh-huh.

>> MING: Mm...

Sole meunière.

You have parsley, you have sole, all-purpose flour, everyone has.

Lemon-- both the zest and the juice-- and butter.

That's it, super-classic, super-easy to do.

So let's take this off the tray, Henry.

Lose the tray for me.

>> So few ingredients.

It's awesome.

>> MING: So, Henry, I'm gonna have you take some parsley and shave it off like that, all right?

And then you're gonna mince some parsley.

And I'm gonna just do a very simple... Let me get a large plate here.

We're just gonna season the fish up and then dredge it in the all-purpose flour.

Right?

Pretty simple.

We're gonna take our sole.

We're gonna season it, not super-heavy.

Salt and pepper on both sides.

Just kosher salt here, guys.

See, some of these filets are super-super-thin, so you don't want it to... You don't want to over-season, right?

Being so thin, okay?

Put that away, please, Hen.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MING: Then I'm going to put a little black pepper.

In Chinese cuisine, this would be taboo.

They don't want to see black, because then it looks like the specks of the wok.

So in Chinese cuisine, quite often we use white pepper just for that reason alone.

And the flavor of white pepper is different than black, as well.

I like the flavor of black pepper, and I don't mind the black specks, because I know it's not from the wok.

>> And you wanted me to finely chop this, right?

>> MING: Yes, sir, mince it.

>> Mince it.

>> MING: Another tip, by the way, when you buy fish... (sniffing): Smell it.

Give it a smell, Hen.

What do you smell?

>> Close to nothing.

>> MING: Close to nothing or the... >> Or the sea.

>> MING: Or the sea, exactly.

It should smell like the sea.

So when I go to my fishmonger and all these grocery stores, I still ask, "Hey, can I smell your fish, please?"

And not one person has ever hesitated to put it on parchment paper to let me smell it.

If they hesitate, move on-- go to the next store, right?

So then we're gonna take this and we're just gonna do what's called dredging.

So what I'm gonna do is take a second plate here.

All right, that looks pretty good there, Hen.

So as you can see, I really want to get flour everywhere on this, on the filet, okay?

So you take it and you really just pat it in.

I'm not going for a thick coating, guys, right?

If I wanted to do that, I'd pané, which would be egg, flour, and then breadcrumb.

That's not what we're going for.

We're just going for very simple country cooking.

Just all-purpose flour.

Everyone has A.P.

in their household, right?

The filets are nice and wet, so the flour will stick.

And super-quick cooking, too, guys.

These are so thin, it's gonna be about two minutes, probably three minutes max, a side.

(washing hands) And we're gonna be all done.

So we're going to get a pan on high here.

(igniter clicking) So I have my filets.

I'm going to use grapeseed oil to give it a good sear.

I want to get color on both sides and this is something to make sure you do.

I have my oven at 200 degrees and I have a platter.

It's not too hot, it's 200 degrees, but nice and warm.

Because once I, once I sear my fish, I want to make sure to keep it warm, make the sauce in the same pan-- one-pot cooking-- and then boom, you dredge that on top and we're good to go, all right?

So the key here, grab a little grapeseed oil.

I want to get this pan pretty hot.

So I've got to count at least a minute.

I don't need to touch the pan to see if it's hot.

I can feel if it's getting hot.

So now I can feel ten more seconds.

(quickly): Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two...

Metric units, if you're wondering, Henry.

(Henry laughing) Those are metric seconds.

>> Sorry, I'm American.

>> MING: All right, guys, check this out.

Then you take your filets... Got to have that little... See, it's a little bubbling, a little sizzle, see how they shrink up a little bit?

That's okay.

All right, get this, boom.

Get this.

Three.

See if I can get my fourth one in there.

Nice skinny boy.

All right.

>> Wow.

>> MING: Should look pretty good there.

Nice job on your parsley.

>> Thank you.

>> MING: And it's okay, you're gonna see it curl up a little bit, that's okay, as well.

Again, I'm just gonna go, I'm gonna cook it a lot on one side because I want to get it, get a little bit of color, and then I'm gonna flip it onto the other side.

All right.

Let's see how we did here.

Okay, I'm gonna give it just a little more.

It needs just a touch more.

What I'm going to add, I'm gonna add one pat of butter right now, split it in half, because this will help it color, then, right?

So one pat of butter will help it color.

And you want to go with what's called beurre noisette.

So it's okay to add the butter.

Beurre noisette is brown butter.

And you can see how this butter is already browning a little bit.

And you can see how luscious and delicious this fish is going to be.

The butter is also gonna help color it, right?

It's gonna help it get it a nice brown color.

So let's see if we got some color here now.

Oh, yeah.

See that?

Nice and tan like that.

>> Oh, wow.

>> MING: That's what we're looking for, guys.

>> Just the lightest fry.

>> MING: Just a light brown, because you don't want to overcook the fish, all right?

So this is almost done, guys.

I'm gonna go on this side literally just about a minute.

And then lay it down on this warm platter I have.

And then to this, I can add more butter, and then we're going to add the lemon, lemon juice, parsley, and that's it.

There is a very famous woman who is watching from upstairs.

This was one of her favorite dishes ever to make for herself and for her guests, Julia Child.

And she loved it for its simplicity.

And she loved it because any fish would work, right?

Sole meunière is the classic.

You could use thinly sliced... you could take salmon, and I would cut, you know, thinner pieces of salmon.

You can use striped bass, halibut, they'd all work.

But sole-- especially gray sole, something like this-- is a poor man's cut, if you would, because it's not very expensive.

And that's why people really, really liked it.

All right, so this looks really good.

I'm gonna take my platter out.

>> And if you don't pre-heat the platter, will it, like, lead to the fish getting soggy once you plate it?

>> MING: Yeah, that's a great question.

If you don't pre-heat the platter, I'm gonna put hot fish on a cold platter, and then all that beautiful work I just did to get this fish a good color, you're gonna just make it... (imitates sad trombone) You know what I mean, Henry?

Oh, yeah.

(Henry imitating sad trombone) Look at this color.

Look at that.

>> Wow.

>> MING: That's what we're talking about.

Okay, so because this is pre-heated, we can leave it right there.

I don't want to put it back in the oven because it'll overcook it.

So I'm gonna turn the heat down to just low, because I want this to slowly noisette.

What I want to do, though, is zest and juice a lemon, right?

So, I want to get this done.

And want that butter to come slowly together.

So I'm just gonna zest a lemon here.

Zest, first, right?

Then juice.

Obviously really hard to zest a lemon once you've juiced it, right?

And again, as a reminder, just the yellow part.

The white part of a lemon is pretty bitter.

All right?

So just the yellow part.

Okay, so there's that.

Henry did a decent job on the parsley.

I'm gonna go a little bit more, Henry, sorry.

Just a little bit more.

>> It's all right, I'm the foil in this relationship.

>> MING: Nice.

Okay?

Boom and boom.

And we have our zest and our juice-- okay.

Now, check this out.

See that?

Nice beurre noisette.

Add our parsley.

(pan sizzles) Watch, it's going to splatter, Henry.

It's always gonna splatter when you add parsley to something like this, some hot oil.

>> Mm.

>> MING: Okay, you can smell it.

Look at that.

>> Wow.

>> MING: I can turn this off, right?

Parsley and zest cooking.

Add the juice of one lemon like this.

(pan sizzles) No seeds.

Like that.

Then just reduce it a little bit.

Add just a touch of salt.

I don't need any pepper because I peppered the...

The sole, and that's it.

All right, Hen, let's go to the board.

Let's plate this up.

>> Sure thing.

>> MING: Take this out.

So then you take... ...this beautiful beurre noisette with the parsley.

>> It's almost like a... >> MING: With the lemon juice.

>> Whoa, what's the term?

Gremolata, is that it?

>> MING: Yeah, gremolata, it is.

But look at that, guys, look how good that looks.

(places pan down) Oh, baby, oh, baby, oh.

Henry... >> Wow.

>> MING: We usually don't taste till afterwards, but this is so... (cutlery clanging) ...looking so good, I'm gonna try this little piece right here with this mini fork.

Let's give this a try.

Mm.

Mm, mm, mm.

That's why sole meunière is just so good.

♪ ♪ Now we're gonna do a cool vegetarian version of this, guys.

Same ingredients except, for the A.P., I'm using rice flour.

>> And out of all the gluten-free flours, you're using rice just because... >> MING: I'm using rice-- you can use rice or cornstarch.

Both, both are really good flours.

Here's some twine, guys, right?

So, I'm gonna take my twine... You're, like, "What does he have twine for?"

I'll tell you what I have twine for.

I need both ends here.

Okay, here we go.

So I'm gonna take this end.

I'm going to tie... Nice and tight like this.

Give me another, cut me another piece of long twine, please, Henry.

>> Okay.

>> MING: Cut me another piece, please.

All right, so there's one piece like that.

Thank you.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> MING: Then I'm gonna do it again.

Take this.

>> (laughing): You're trussing a Napa cabbage.

>> MING: I am kind of trussing, you're right.

I'm gonna make it super-tight, like this.

(straining): And tie it tight.

Then, come around this side, tie it tight again.

You know what I'm gonna do here, Henry?

>> Um...

I would, I would like to know.

But I haven't the faintest idea.

>> MING: Okay, there.

Tie a dead knot, I don't need to take this off later.

All right.

So, so now I have twine tied on both sides like that.

Twine on both sides like this.

What I'm making is cabbage steak.

So I cut it there, I'll cut an inch steak here, and cut an inch steak here.

So you end up with two... >> Whoa... >> MING: Ooh, one... (Henry laughing) ...perfect cabbage steak.

>> Oh, I get it.

Here, maybe we can... >> MING: You can rebuild that.

But this is what I'm looking for, guys, right?

So, I'm going to start this pan.

(igniter clicks) We're going to use grapeseed oil again.

Hot pan.

Not the pan that, um, has the fish, obviously.

Going to season-- you do still need to season, right?

Cabbage does not come seasoned.

By the way, I've done this also with just green cabbage.

Green cabbage also works.

Definitely black pepper.

Now, there's not gonna be nearly as much flour sticking to this.

I just want a little bit to coat.

Okay, see that?

Just a little bit in the oil.

Yeah.

See that?

Really get a nice coating on it, and actually, you know what?

I got to coat the other side.

I'm going to have a hard time coating the other one both sides.

Okay, there.

I'm gonna take this out before it gets too hot and coat the other side.

Now I'll coat this one again.

Okay.

>> And so I noticed with the sole and with this, they're so moist that you don't really need a liquid for the, uh... >> MING: Yeah, usually, like, the old classic French for breadcrumbing is, you know, flour to get the eggs stick, egg to get the breadcrumbs to stick.

Here, we're going straight flour.

I'm gonna turn this down to medium, because this is obviously such a thick piece, I want to make sure it cooks all the way through.

Obviously, you can eat Napa cabbage raw, so I don't need to worry about it cooking to 160, right?

It's not like cooking pork or, or any type of ground chicken.

But what you wanna do is get a good color.

So as it's cooking, I'm gonna go ahead and add a little bit of this coconut butter, which I love, that will add a great little flavor to it, but also help it color a little bit faster.

So here's some coconut butter that I'm gonna add on both sides here.

All right?

Coconut butter is fantastic.

It also has a, a really good flavor.

And will give the same type of color I was talking about with the regular butter.

>> Mm.

>> MING: All right?

You can actually smell it.

>> Wow, it smells awesome.

>> MING: All right, so we're gonna move this around like that.

I'm going to give that, um... We're gonna just give this a couple more seconds.

Let me see what this looks like here.

Oh, yeah, it's almost there.

So I'm gonna let this go.

I'm gonna turn this back on high, give it a good color.

And honestly, um...

I have, I have my oven here.

I don't think I'm gonna need it, because they're just gonna get some good color.

It's coming together.

Oh, yeah, so that's looking pretty good here.

I'm gonna flip this.

Okay?

And then I'm gonna add a little bit more of the coconut butter on this side.

(pan sizzling) All right?

Now, this one could get flipped, as well.

Oh, yeah.

>> Ooh, nice.

>> MING: There we go.

So that's getting some good color there.

See that?

Just to get the same kind of nice crusty color, move this around.

And I'm gonna let this go for about three or four more minutes.

Okay?

So I did go a little overzealous.

I did go king grande on the size of this guy.

But I love how it's coming together, all right?

So again here, just let this go, move it around.

Get that butter.

Soaking up the coconut butter.

You can see how, how nice and crusty it got, right?

So...

I'm going to go ahead and zest.

Same thing.

You can...

I can show you, we're gonna zest again, lemon.

So the same deal.

I can just zest right here.

So, the same thing guys, so now we're going to zest lemon.

We have Henry's chopped parsley.

We're gonna add the lemon juice.

The whole nine yards.

Now I can see, I can see this is getting colored now.

It's been turned down to medium.

Just to finish cooking the cabbage.

So there's my lemon zest.

Let me grab my perfectly chopped parsley by Henry.

That.

>> Nice.

>> MING: All right.

>> Look at those knife skills right there.

Perfect.

>> MING: How is that cabbage looking there, Hen?

>> It looks great.

I don't know, you got to flip it?

>> MING: Let's see what it looks like again here on this side.

Oh, yeah, look at that, right?

>> Oh, yeah.

That's nice.

>> MING: Okay, this, I got to make sure...

This, you got to be a little careful, so use a spatula, too.

Oh, yeah.

>> Oh, wow.

>> MING: Look at that.

Okay?

So now we're going to add...

I have my tray.

So I'm gonna pull out my platter here.

Again, another heated platter.

Take this out.

Be careful.

You don't want the cabbage to break.

Voilà.

Voilà.

Okay.

Then don't forget to take out, obviously, the, um, string.

Right?

Voilà.

>> Wow.

>> MING: And I don't mind that these leaves, a couple of leaves fell down, right?

But to this now we can add more coconut butter, right?

And I'm gonna add just a little bit, because I can, extra-virgin olive oil.

Gives it another level of flavor.

Awesome.

The same thing-- parsley, lemon zest.

(pan sizzles) Okay, watch the splatter.

Get that going.

Then we add... a little... lemon juice.

(pan sizzles) Just like we did before.

>> Nice.

>> MING: And this dish is also done, right?

So mix that around.

The olive oil was, um...

I had, I used a good amount of coconut butter, so I just wanted to thin it out with a little bit of the olive oil.

All right?

So this is good.

Let's plate this up.

Same thing, guys.

Now we take this... awesome... vegan... lemon, lemon zest, coconut butter.

Um, and I think I mentioned-- did I mention it, Henry?-- that some people use capers.

It's not classic, 'cause capers are quote-unquote expensive, but... >> So this, this would classify as, like, your standard French... >> MING: This is, this is the most classic of all classic.

Check that out.

Henry, I'm gonna have you try this.

(cutlery clanging) Let me cut you a little piece here.

Okay, Henry.

Actually, I'll try it first.

>> Go right ahead.

>> MING: See how we did.

Oh, my God.

Oh!

Henry, I think you're gonna like this.

>> All right, I'll get right in.

>> MING: Tell me what you think here, Hen.

Here, I'll feed you.

Like father, like son.

>> Mm... >> MING: What do you think?

>> The rice flour gives it a good crust.

>> MING: It gives it a great crust, right?

>> Yeah.

(item clanging loudly) >> MING: Whoa, here we go.

All right, guys, there it is.

Sole meunière.

Cabbage, cabbage meunière.

We can't call that an Arnold Palmer.

Guess we can call it a what?

>> Is that, is that trademarked?

>> MING: I don't know, Arnold Palmer is in heaven, so I doubt he's gonna sue us.

>> Yeah.

>> MING: But let's call it the Charley Hoffman, who's another PGA pro.

(both laughing) Cheers to you.

>> Cheers to you.

>> MING: You guys, cheers to you.

Go make yourself some sole meunière, or the vegan version is cabbage meunière.

And, as always... >> Peace.

>> MING: And good eating.

Ciao.

For more information on Simply Ming, including upcoming guests and more, visit us online at ming.com/simplyming.

>> Simply Ming is brought to you by Subaru of New England, proudly celebrating 50 years of love.

Authorized retailers at SubaruOfNewEngland.com.

Here's to the next 50 years and beyond.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪