Saturday, July 30, 2011

Baked Flounder in Lemon Soy Vinaigrette

Imagine my surprise [read: shock and horror] when my local supermarket didn't have fish fillets in saran-wrapped trays anymore, only these prepackaged, vaccum-sealed things. WTF?? I really wanted fish, and it was only $1.50, so I tried it, and the neat little recipe on the back. All told they weren't bad, but they smelled ultra-fishy and they were ridiculously small. Plus, I don't take too well to change. I'm just weird like that. Although the hippy in me is happy they aren't using styrofoam anymore.


Ingredients:
4 flounder fillets. Doesn't have to be prepackaged, just any fillets.
2 garlic cloves, diced (or 1 1/2 tsp of pre-minced garlic out of a jar. I'm lazy!)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used sushi & sashimi sauce which is really, really good)
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
Optional: thinly sliced lemon for garnish. I'm telling you that unless you're entertaining, it's not that serious.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 450° F. That may sound like a lot for fish, I thought so too. But it's okay, just do it.
Arrange the fillets in a ceramic or glass dish (they were specific about this for some reason) just large enough to hold them in a single layer. Frankly, I only have one pyrex dish and it's ginormous. They're lucky I didn't pop these little fuckers on a piece of tin foil and call it a day.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic, lemon juice, soy sauce sugar and salt and whisk in the oil until emulsified. I don't know what that means so I just stirred everything together. I figured what's the difference? But then I found this- Oops. lol

Well, once you have your unstable emulsion, pour it evenly over the fillets and bake on the center rack of the oven until just cooked through, and no longer translucent, about 4-6 minutes.


To be quite honest here, this was okay. Not fantastic, not terrible. It needed a little something. Maybe mustard, maybe an herb... so I added some fresh dill to the cooked fish and that made it better. My suggestion to you is add a bit of mustard into the vinaigrette to begin with. It may add some dimension which this recipe was severely lacking. Ah well, you live and you learn.

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