Thursday, April 14, 2011

Easy Flounder Oreganata



Easy Flounder Fillets are a great way of packing a lot of flavor into a quick and healthy dish.  I buy a pack of wild Pacific Flounder at Costco and keep in my freezer for whenever I dont know what to make. They thaw in minutes are are easy on you waistline. In this dish, the Breadcrumbs are moistened with Olive Oil, Italian Parsley and Garlic, spooned over the Flounder and sent for a quick trip to the oven where amazing things happen.  

The delicate flavors of the flounder are overcome by the baked clam like stuffing. I like crumby flounder. To me, the crumb is the best part. If you are cutting calories, it would be just as delicious with 1 heaping teaspoon of the breadcrumb mixture. This recipe gets 2 spoons.

When I was a kid I remember going to Villa Russo in Ozone Park, Queens for just about every party we ever were invited to.  Among other things, they served baked clams as an appetizer.  I would scoop out the crumbs and leave that poor clam naked in its shell.  Then, just because kids are dumb, I'd lift the clam up out of its shell just enough to load it with hot pepper flakes.  I would then pawn it off on any one of my family members to eat.  Now remember, Italians think its a sacreligous to leave food on your plate, so I could get just about anyone to eat it even with out the breadcrumbs.  Whoever ate it would be sweating like a sinner in church!  That was funny to me then and its still funny to me now.  What can I say, I'm a simpleton.  Paying homage to my love even then of all things Oreganata, I make this dish with those same flavors in mind.


You'll need:

8 flounder fillets, fresh or frozen
1 cup breadcrumbs, pre seasoned. I use 4C brand seasoned crumbs. I like their consistency
3 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
Salt and pepper on the flounder to taste (before the breadcrumbs go on)
1/2 cup olive oil plus a little extra to drizzle on them.




Place frozen flounder in warm water for a few minutes until almost fully thawed, pat dry, salt and pepper to taste, arrange in a baking tray and drizzle with a bit of olive oil, about a teaspoon each. In a bowl mix, crumbs, garlic, parsley and oil. It will look much like wet sand.  Spoon 2 heaping teaspoons of the crumb mix onto of each flounder almost covering it all and pat it down a bit. Bake in a PREHEATED oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.

Serves 4

Notes:

Easy on the salt when seasoning the fish. The seasoning in the breadcrumbs has a good amount of salt, so if your looking to trim your sodium, skip that step and just pepper the fish.

When defrosting the frozen flounder, it need not be fully thawed. My fish was still hard in the center when I cooked it. A preheated oven at 450 will cook a thin flounder even if it's slightly frozen. I prefer fully thawed though, it ensures proper cooking, but to answer the question "does flounder need to be thawed before cooking it" the answer would be NO. Frozen flounder will cook too.

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8 comments:

  1. Hi Julia! Just wanted to let you know that as a girl from Howard Beach with Sicilian off the boat parents, I love your blog! You made my mom's day with the pane consato! I look forwad to your daily posts!
    Melina

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  2. Sicilian from HB, I must know you!! Email me your last name...email is on the contact me tab

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  3. This is so tasteful! Thank you for posting your recipes.

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  4. Fapturbo...have you tried it? It's really easy to make

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  5. This looks pretty awesome..hope it's really easy to make., can't wait to try doing it this weekend.

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  6. Hi Julia, I just found your blog and love what I'm reading. Can cod fish or haddock be substituted for flounder? I don't enjoy flounder as it is flat and mushy.

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  7. Hi there Louise, you can substitute either of those nicely. Ive tried this on all sorts of fish and the only 2 I didnt like it on were tuna and salmon. Thank you for your comment. They really help everyone.

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  8. I made this last night...simple and delish...I squirt some lemon juice on top of the breadcrumb mixture before baking...hubby said tasted just like mamas..LOL

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