Alright, lets get down to this one. This recipe was such a surprise and turned out so amazingly delicious, I have to give its own post. Yes. That deserving haha. Anyhow, so post all our wedding festivities in India, the husband and I are now in Houston, settling into married life. We celebrated our one month anniversary yesterday haha. Little joys in life. Anyways, since we are new in Houston, we decided to go exploring the Asian grocery stores around where we are. Surprisingly, or not, Houston has a big China town and some fantastic Chinese grocery stores. Especially, Jusgo in Bellaire is sooo good. We chanced on that store and were completely blown away by the variety of fresh produce and live fish that we found. Absolutely a seafood lovers’ delight. Crabs, snappers, turtles (don’t worry not going to eat the cute little turtles), flounder, halibut and more.
We got really excited and grabbed quite a few fishes to try out. One of them was flounder. I hadn’t had it in a while but remembered it being a very tender delicate white fish. It does not have much of a flavor of its own but you can do so much with it. Then we came across some Bok Choy in the produce aisle and I mean, who does not like Bok Choy. So, I immediately googled to see if there were any possible recipes that would combine flounder and bok choy and I came across this gem!!
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/oven-roasted-flounder-with-bok-choy-cilantro-and-lime
So here is my slightly modified version of the recipe which adds some additional flavor profiles. I added some garlic, sauteed some Bok Choy and threw in some Jasmine rice for hearty comfort Asian food. Yummm. Hope you enjoy!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 scallion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro plus small sprigs for garnish
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons finely minced peeled ginger
- 3 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound baby bok choy (2-3 bunches), cut in half lengthwise
- 1/2 cup sake or dry white wine
- 4 4-ounce fillets flounder or other delicate white fish (up to 1/2 inch thick)
- My additions
- 4 Cloves of garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons of Oyster Sauce
- 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
Sauce:
Combine scallion, 1/4 cup cilantro, and next 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk in 1 1/2 tablespoon oil. Season cilantro-lime sauce with salt and pepper; set aside. Modification: So as much I love ginger, I do not enjoy it raw in a sauce. So in my modification, I cooked the sauce a little in a saucepan until it thicken up a little and the ginger was not as raw. This made the sauce slightly thicker and thus helping it coat the fish well. DO this as the last step and douse it on top of the fish! You can add a little fish sauce(1 tbsp) for taste as well.
Bok Choy:
Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over high heat until shimmering. Working in batches if needed, add bok choy, cut side down, and sear until golden brown, 2-4 minutes per batch. Turn bok choy cut side up and remove pan from heat. Modification: I did this only for 1/3rd the total amount of Bok Choy I had. The rest is cooked separately. So once the fish goes into the oven, heat the wok with some olive oil, add some minced garlic (you can add a good amount of garlic, depending on how much garlicky flavor you like in your food), and throw in the bok choy. The garlic does not need to be cooked as it will cook with the Bok Choy. Also, add in some water in order to steam the vegetable and then, cover the wok. It does not take very long so keep it in there until tender.
Then take it out of the water, add the oyster sauce and coat the vegetable.
Onto the Flounder:
Take the browned Bok Choy, and put in on the base of the pan you want to use in the oven. Season flounder fillets with salt and pepper and arrange in a single layer over bok choy. Add sake. Roast in oven at 400F until fish is just cooked through, 8-10 minutes.
Present your dish:
1. Scoop out the sake sauce to the bowl
2. Add a cup of cooked Jasmine rice
3. Add the fish to the top of the rice
4. Pour/Drizzle on the cilantro-lime sauce (after cooking it down) on top of it all for delicious hearty flounder goodiness!
Enjoy!
Source & Credit: Bon Appetit
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/oven-roasted-flounder-with-bok-choy-cilantro-and-lime
Out of my comfort zone 