Just Another Monday

With the remodel going on I thought it would be good to get a menu up and set to give some sense of normalcy to the mess of the kitchen. As is my MO, I prefer the the straightforward fare -- the simple food that sticks to your ribs (or at least acts like it does).

Today's choice:

Fried fish with roasted mushrooms with rosemary and garlic

Normally I would think that attempting to pair anything roasted with a white fish would be an exercise in futility and honestly during the process I was more than a bit concerned. Whenever I've been out and about and had fish, fried or grilled, it tends to end up next to some light vegetables or a rice concoction.

No more!

I know now that you should just go with what you feel in your gut. And my gut felt like this would be a good idea when I came up with the menu and maybe my trepidation was the reason that this was the first item of the week as I could always make it up with better meals.

Funny that now I'm wondering if that was foolish as the rest of the week will be a challenge to beat.

Here's how I got there:


Ingredients:

1 pound thinly sliced whitefish - I like red snapper, but flounder works just as well
2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 cups breadcrumbs (homemade if you like but store bought works -- if you've got time, use ground pistachios as they really bring our some great flavors)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 pound of mixed mushrooms - I went with random hand fulls of brown and white mushrooms
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 smashed and split cloves of garlic
3-4 sprigs of rosemary
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper
1/4 cup water

Preheat your oven to 450F.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms. You can toss them in if you like but I prefer to get rid of them as some mushroom stems like Shitake take a long time to cook and it'll really throw off the textures of the finished meal. Your choice entirely. Peel and mash the garlic cloves with the flat side of your knife.

Place the mushrooms and garlic in a roasting pan. Peel away the rosemary and toss in as well. Pour the olive oil over the mixture and toss about to cover the mixture and place in the oven.

Cook for 20-25 minutes.

While this is a brewing in the oven, get three pans/plates out. One for flour, one for the beaten egg mix and the last for the breadcrumbs in that order.

Rinse off and pat dry your fish fillets.

I make sure to de-bone them as well. If you've got needle nose pliers, now would be the time to have them handy. If you don't, you can use your knife and carefully pry them out.

Now before you get to battering take a moment to look at your hands. Your right hand will be "dry" and your left will be "wet." Follow this model:

Right hand grabs dry fish fillet and places it in the flour. With the same hand, cover fillet with flour and shake off excess. Right hand slides fillet into egg bath.

Left hand swirls fillet around, flips fillet over and repeat. The left hand then places fish fillet into pan containing bread crumbs.

Right hand then covers the fillet with breadcrumbs, flips fish over and repeats. Right hand then places breaded fish on a rack.

Perform this process until all fillets are covered.

Melt butter in pan on medium high heat. As soon as froth or bubbles begin to form, place in the fillets. Cook for 3-5 minutes depending on each side depending on thickness.

Once done remove and place on a cooking rack with paper towel underneath to catch drippings.

Repeat for all fillets.

You should be hearing a ding from a timer just in case you forgot about the mushrooms.

Remove from oven and pour the water into the pan. With thongs or a spatula, remove the mushrooms if stuck to the bottom and swirl the mixture around to loosen everything up.

Plate and serve with the white wine of your choice.