Orange Roughy

This morning, I found myself wrestling with a cooking dilemma. You see, I have had a Barefoot Contessa recipe on hold for a few months now. First, I could not find the right kind of fish. Then, I suddenly could not find creme fraiche where I normally purchase it (or anywhere else for some reason). So, I made up my mind to substitute a different fish and some sort of sour cream concoction for the other ingredient that I was missing. I put the Barefoot Contessa dish on my meal plan for the week; determined to move forward with it.

Fast forward to this morning...I looked up the BC recipe again, with the intention of posting about it here and now. In re-reading the recipe I realized that I not only did not have the right fish or the creme fraiche that it called for, but I also did not have two other major ingredients. That would bring my total of missing ingredients to four. The recipe only had seven ingredient listed! Errrrr...not good. Since I am missing four out of the seven total items, I decided to scrap it completely. The recipe that I would end up cobbling together with substitutions would not resemble the original dish, anyway. Sigh. Better luck next time. So, what to do now??? I had fish to use (albeit the WRONG fish for Ina's dish...but fish, nonetheless). I did a quick recipe search this morning on the RecipeZaar website and came up with this idea. ("When in doubt, use RecipeZaar!"...This notion is quickly becoming a personal philosophy of mine.)

This humbly titled dish looks pretty interesting and easy. Better yet, I actually have ALL the ingredients for this one. Hooray, RecipeZaar! I think I will serve my fish with roasted asparagus, a Trader Joe's wild rice pilaf mix, and a salad.

Dinner problem solved!!!

Orange Roughy
Adapted from recipe #29964/By tamibic

Ingredients:
4 orange roughy fillets
1 egg
2 tablespoons honey mustard OR Dijon mustard
3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs (I am going to use a mixture of Panko and Italian seasoned bread crumbs)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 teaspoons olive oil

Directions:
1. Mix egg and mustard in medium bowl.
2. Mix bread crumbs and cayenne in large zip top bag.
3. Dip fillets in egg mixture then toss in bread crumb.
4. Place in the fridge for 1/2 hour so crumbs adhere.
5. Heat the oil in large pan and cook about 4-5 min per side (depending on how thick). Cook until fish flakes easily and is done in the center.

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Jen's Notes:
I am not totally sure that I am going to pan fry these fillets. I think I might bake them instead in a 400 degree oven, on a wire rack (air bake method) for 15 minutes or so. This is a bit healthier and the fish should remain crunchy. A good spritz of cooking spray over the tops of the breaded fish will make it brown nicely, too. I will let you know how I decide to cook it later, in my 'Result' post.



The Result:
This was really good!!! We all enjoyed this dish, and it will be a recipe that I make again soon.

I ended up baking the fish, as I indicated in my notes. It was perfectly crisp and not overcooked. The only thing that was needed was a squirt of lemon to brighten the overall flavor of the dish. Yum! As usual, the rice pilaf and asparagus came out perfect. This fish recipe is a definite keeper.

Oh, one other thing that I almost forgot...

I ended up mixing 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon of whole grain mustard, and a 1/2 teaspoon of honey to the egg. I didn't have actually honey mustard, so I used this technique instead.