Sunday, November 8, 2009

Baked Whitefish

Several months ago I bought some frozen white fish fillets at the supermarket. I bought them because I know that I don't eat enough fish, but I really don't know how to prepare the stuff that's sold fresh at the various fish vendors around town (scales and bones and fish heads and innards are an enigma to me). So I figured I could heat these up from time to time, no fuss no muss. I have no idea what kind of fish it is, exactly; I know only that it smells rather fishy once it's thawed. So I've tried to use it in recipes that will downplay its fishiness, and tonight I happened upon one that I actually really enjoyed:

2 lb. fresh or frozen flounder or haddock fillets
Salt & pepper
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. instant minced onion
A few sprigs parsley, chopped
1/2 c. mayonnaise or salad dressing
Paprika

Thaw fish if frozen and drain off any liquid. Arrange fillets in shallow 2 quart baking dish and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Mix 3/4 teaspoon salt with remaining ingredients except paprika. Spread on fillets and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with paprika. Serves 6.

I deviated from the recipe above as follows:

I had no minced instant onion, so I added about 1 tbsp. of powdered garlic instead.
I forgot to add the salt to the dressing, but I think the powdered garlic made up for it.
I had no parsley.
What I thought was a lemon that I pulled off one of the trees outside turned out to be an orange. The trees in the back grow both (I guess whoever planted them grafted an orange and lemon tree together), and the result are trees that grow both lemons and oranges. The oranges have a very zesty, lemony characteristic to them, so this ended up working out. I'll probably try this again sometime with a real lemon, but the results were so good that I'd recommend trying it with orange, too.

I paired this with a glass of Nostos 2008 Rousanne, around which I specifically planned the fish recipe. The wine is a very full-bodied, heavily oaked white, and I thought that the mayonnaise component would help the fish stand up to the wine. The match was perfectly adequate, but not phenomenal. I think that this wine would be stunning with bacon-wrapped scallops, which I'm considering as a component of tomorrow night's dinner with the remainder of the bottle. The only problem is that the last time I had scallops, a couple of years ago, I ended up with a case of food poisoning and I haven't been able to bring myself to do scallops again since then.


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