Flounder Fillets à la Moutarde
Cookbook Challenge #1

I wanted to start my Cookbook Recipe Challenge off with a quick and easy recipe from one of my oldest cookbooks, The New New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne with Pierre Franey. I have no idea where or when I picked up this extraordinary cookbook but I know I haven’t cooked nearly enough recipes from it.

With over 1,000 recipes, it’s a worthwhile buy; just reading about the chefs who came out to Mr. Claiborne’s East Hampton, New York home to cook with him is worth the price of the book alone. And, this is a companion volume to his 1961 best-selling classic, The New York Times Cookbook.

The first chapter, De Gustibus, is a must read for any foodie who wants to learn more about “the revolution in American cooking and food awareness, entertaining and dining customs.” He goes on to talk about some his own personal pet peeves and preferences, something you know I enjoy doing on my website.

This recipe calls for 8 small, skinless, boneless flounder fillets but at my fish market, they only had a large fluke fillet weighing in at about 1-1/3 pounds. I’m not sure where you could even find 8 small flounder fillets totaling 1 pound with the minimum size allowed to be kept at 18 inches. Maybe he means cutting a large fillet into smaller ones.

Note: Be sure to read my post called Fluke or Flounder – What’s the Difference? I think you’ll find it both informative and interesting.

He also talks about making your own mayonnaise — that is a great idea and easy to do, but for most of us work-at-home dads, this is not something we often find time for. I highly suggest you give it a try sometime just so you can taste the difference between homemade and commercial. It’s huge!

Here’s my recipe for Homemade Mayonnaise.  And if you are wondering who makes the best commercial mayo, check out my post on What Mayonnaise Tastes Best?.

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Here’s my big old fluke fillet. Well I think it’s fluke and not flounder. Be sure to take it out of the refrigerator in advance of cooking so you’re not sticking a cold piece of fish under the broiler.

Here’s my mayo, mustard and parsley mixture to spread all over the fish.

Season the fish with some salt and pepper to taste after placing it onto a roasting pan.

Spread the mayo, mustard, parsley coating on top of the fish.

Here’s how my flounder looked after it came out from under the broiler. Looks a little overcooked but it was not. You’ll want to experiment on exactly how long to cook it and from what distance from the broiler heat source.

Here are my wife’s famous roasted scalloped potatoes. What we don’t eat for supper, we get to enjoy with breakfast.

Flounder Fillets à la Moutarde
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 8 small, skinless, boneless flounder fillets, about 1 – 1.25 pounds
Salt & Pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon peanut, vegetable or corn oil
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, preferably homemade
• 1 tablespoon imported mustard, such as Dijon or Dusseldorf
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
• 4 lemon wedges

How to Make at Home

This is a very quick and easy dish to prepare at home. We served it with steamed asparagus and scallop-cut roasted potatoes that take more time to prepare and cook than the fish.

Start by taking the fish out of the refrigerator while you prep the ingredients and preheat the broiler.
Before preheating the broiler, be sure to get the top oven rack into a position so the fish is about 3 to 4 inches from the broiler heat source. You don’t want to be messing with the rack after it gets hot.

In a medium sized bowl, mix the mayonnaise and mustard and stir in the parsley.

Place the flounder fillets onto a baking sheet. I sprayed my baking sheet with a little oil first to prevent sticking. Brush the mayo/mustard mix evenly over the fillet(s) and place the pan under the broiler about 3 to 4 inches from the heat source.

The recipe says to “broil for about 1 minute or until golden brown on top and the fish is just cooked through.” Now maybe Craig Claiborne’s flounder fillets were thinner than mine, but I found it took 2 to 3 minutes for them to be cooked through so keep a close watch on them when cooking.

Serve with potatoes or rice, a favorite vegetable and don’t forget to add the lemon wedges.

Take The Reluctant Gourmet Cookbook Challege

So here’s my first recipe of the challenge - what are you going to cook? You can leave comments about recipes you want to try at my post RG Cookbook Challenge or post them on my Facebook page. Either way, I would love to hear from those of you who are going to try to cook one new recipe from one of your cookbooks every two weeks.

Related Topics

The Reluctant Gourmet Cookbook Challenge

Moussaka - Cookbook Challenge #2