Last evening, I had a night off from cooking. The Delicious Mrs. E. commandeered my stovetop and set to work producing a wonderful meal. That gave me time to actually hang around the barroom mixing martinis for our guests. Which is also the reason that there are no pictures of the plated food…. after the second round of martinis, the camera was quickly forgotten. So please excuse the stock photo of stuffed sole.
Mrs. E, who has the memory of an elephant, filled me in on the details of her triumphant “Stuffed Flounder Chesapeake.”
(To feed four guests)
1 1/2 lbs. of flounder fillets
1 tub of pre-prepared frozen spinach and crab dip, thawed.
paprika
salt and pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper.
Spray a baking dish with butter spray. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Sprinkle both sides of fillets with the salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Lay one layer of fillets in the bottom of the baking dish. Top with a tablespoon or so of the spinach/crab dip. Lay another fillet over top of each of the bottom pieces of fish making “sandwiches.” Dust the tops with paprika. Bake for about 20 minutes….
You could do this dish with just about any fish; and if you’ve got the time and inclination, you could roll the fillets and secure them with a tooth pick to give you a beautiful meal like the one pictured above. A butter sauce (same spices as you’ve used with the fish) underneath completes the presentation.
We served roasted asparagus (she couldn’t keep me completely out of the kitchen….) and a simple salad with a vinaigrette. Dessert was fresh baked mini chocolate chip cookies (from the package — break apart the little squares, bake. Couldn’t be much easier or foolproof.) The wine was “Three Buck Chuck” Chardonnay (Charles Shaw from Trader Joe’s in Alexandria, VA.)
P.S. Our friends just called to say how much they enjoyed dinner and that they both woke up this morning thinking about the main course. I think it might be on regular rotation from here on out. Cheers!