I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. --Julia Child
I don't often eat fish on Mondays. Maybe because it always seemed like a Friday thing -- at least growing up. There would be a weekly fish fry on Fridays at the local restaurant and people would talk about "going out for fish on Friday." But, it was 80 degrees outside and I was thinking summer, ocean, seafood...I realized that I had some lovely, wild caught, Alaskan Cod fillets that would make a nice meal.
I usually bake my fish with a sauce made of butter, lemon, capers, garlic, olives and tomatoes, but I decided to mix it up a bit and try something new.
I preheated the oven to 425F degrees and then patted the fillets dry, seasoned them with a bit of salt and pepper and then coated them in a mixture of 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 TBS mayo, and 2TBS lemon juice and placed them on a greased cookie sheet. Then, I mixed about 1 cup of bread crumbs, 2 TBS of corn meal, 2 TBS of grated Parmesan, and about 2 teaspoons each of oregano, basil, parsley and garlic powder, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I stirred in about 2 TBS of melted butter until the mixture was moist, then I covered each fillet with it. I put in the oven to bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the fish flaked easily with a fork and was cooked all the way through. The first 10 minutes, I covered with foil so the crumbs wouldn't brown too much, then I removed towards the end, so they could toast up a bit.
While the fish was cooking, I quickly cooked up some brown rice (I found a wonderful frozen bagged variety at my grocery store -- you just take it out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave, and 5 minutes later, lovely plain brown rice!) and then stirred in half a package of Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Boursin cheese, some Italian herbs, and a bit of salt/pepper, until it was creamy, then kept warm. To serve, I molded onto the plates in a small mound, but of course since I'm the Gourmess, it didn't quite keep its nice shape for very long. Oh well.
I also still have plenty of veggies around from my latest organic food box order, so I cut up some lovely organic carrots into thin slices and cooked them in about 1 TBS of butter until just tender. Then, I tossed in some beautiful organic broccoli florets, added some salt and pepper, and cooked for 3 minutes more on low, then removed the pan from the heat and covered it, where the broccoli would continue to cook/steam until serving.
It took only about 30 minutes from start to finish to make everything, and I served it with some homemade bread. It was a delicious way to end a Monday.
Yum!
xoxoxo
