Recipe: Lemon Garlic Flounder

On Sunday afternoon, I bought a three pound package of chicken tenders.

And a pound of flounder.

Sunday night, we had leftovers.

Monday night, we unexpectedly ended up having dinner out.

And we already knew we weren’t going to be home for dinner on Tuesday.

So I began to fret about my uncooked chicken and fish sitting in the refrigerator.

Food waste weighs heavily on my mind, and although I am sometimes a victim of it, I really try hard not to let something go bad before I can cook, eat, or freeze it. Which, when you’re loading up on fresh fruit, fish, and vegetables, is even harder.

And I knew that if I didn’t do something with the chicken and fish, it would end up going in the garbage.

So at 10 pm on Monday night, what do you think I was doing?

Yep. Cooking chicken and fish.

Thirty minutes later, I now had three pounds of cooked chicken to use for assorted lunches and dinners, and fish for lunch the next day.

Sometimes you just have to pull up your big girl pants and git ‘er done.

And sometimes, also, we forget just how easy cooking can be.

We overcomplicate it with fancy ingredients. Techniques. Kitchen accessories.

And we really don’t need to. Not always anyway.

And so it was with this fish.

Lemon. Garlic. Oregano. Bake.

Really.

It would be perfect alongside some brown rice and steamed vegetables. Or couscous (a recipe coming tomorrow). Or roasted tomatoes. Or a million other things. For my lunch, I served it with half an avocado and a little bit of melted Cabot cheddar. With each bite, I put a piece of the avocado with the fish, and dredged it a bit in the lemon juice sauce.

I may or may not have licked the plate when I was done.

When you have something you simply must cook now, go back to basics. Skip the fancy. It really is as simple and satisfying as that.

Lemon Garlic Flounder
Recipe courtesy of Cate O’Malley

1 lb firm white fish (I used flounder)
1 lemon
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
oregano

Preheat oven to 375. Put the fish in a small baking pan and sprinkle with oregano. Top each piece of fish with a thin lemon slice and garlic, and then squeeze the rest of the lemon juice over the fish. Bake until done (fish is white and flakes easily with a fork), approximately 30 minutes. (I added a bit of salt to the top of the fish after it was done.)

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