Did I hear that right? Busy Realtors don’t have time to cook? This no-time-at-all delicious fish might cancel that comment. And multi-tasking is always doable.

Fish isn’t just reserved for Fridays. This easy recipe will be a welcome quick and easy meal any day of the week.

Allow refrigerated or frozen fish to come to room temperature on a large platter or plate. Drain off any liquid. You could save the liquid and freeze to add to homemade fish stock from saved and frozen seafood shells. No waste.

Start by preheating the oven to 475 F.

On the centre rack, pop in a rimmed metal baking sheet so the pan is sizzling hot when you add the coated fish filets.

Pat the fish dry with white paper towels after you have drained. Dredge the fish in seasoned all-purpose flour. Add kosher salt to the flour along with your favourite herbs and spices. Easy on the cayenne unless you want pepper-hot coating. Garlic salt and a little garlic powder add a taste enhancer. I use a little nutmeg, a pinch of dried crushed sage if I have it, definitely a little crushed dried fresh thyme (lemon thyme if I have it), a pinch of sweet paprika powder and minced or crushed dried parsley.

Using tongs, dip the flour-coated fish into an egg wash, covering completely. You might like to add a spoon of Dijon, or even white truffle mustard to the egg wash and whisk in just a little maple syrup (or any leftover sticky marinating jus from your rum-plumped golden raisins from another recipe).

If making the fish for adults only, stir into the egg wash a teaspoon of Bacardi Fiero vermouth and a spritz of fresh lemon juice.

Cover the fish in fresh homemade fine artisan olive breadcrumbs that you saved as leftovers, frozen, to which you have added just a little fresh lemon zest. The breadcrumbs thaw quickly.

Turn down the oven to 450 F.

Slide the hot pan rack forward and carefully spritz the sheet pan with Mazola Corn Oil or use a baking brush. Using your malleable fish turner spatula, position your breaded fish filets onto the hot pan. Don’t move the fish once it is on the hot pan.

Slide the fish pan back into the very hot oven. Set your smart watch timer for five minutes. By the time you reopen the oven door, six minutes will have passed and your fish filets will be flakey and perfectly cooked.

Slide your fish flipper under each filet and move the fish to a waiting hot-water-heated dry plate. Spritz with just a whiff of Bacardi Lime (you don’t want to make the crispy breadcrumbs wet). Sprinkle with just a flutter of Amagansett sea salt finishing flakes and eat while hot.

Offer a dipping bowl of my Hendricks gin tzatziki (cucumber) or my special citrus tartare sauce: seafood gourmet dipping sauce (see below).

Served alongside my battered deep-fried vegetable salad, you have covered the food groups wonderfully. Make plenty. Beyond delicious.

The battered vegetables are even okay refrigerated and eaten at room temperature the next day as nibble treats. You might like to add a little fresh salt to any leftovers.

Seafood gourmet dipping sauce

Consider this a different sort of tartare sauce perhaps…

Stir together two generous cups of equal parts full fat sour cream and thick homemade mayonnaise. Add a half cup of citrus sugar from your pantry candied citrus rinds jar. If you have just a single citrus in your jar that’s fine. Add a quarter cup of red wine vinegar. Stir in a quarter cup of Bacardi Lime.

Mince a quarter cup of homemade candied citrus rinds from your pantry sugar jar using your mini food processor and stir into the sauce. Add a few turns of fresh ground pink peppercorns and a bit of kosher salt or Amagansett finishing sea salt.

Using a handheld blender or a two-whisk handheld mixer, whiz just a little to marry all the ingredients well.

Refrigerate in a sterilized covered glass jar until ready to use.

Use my unique seafood gourmet dipping sauce on a fresh homemade lobster-filled roll, or in a pan-fried or grilled split lobster roll bun filled with the following: pan-seared in unsalted butter bay scallops (that’s the little scallops); flambéed with amazing Bacardi Fiero vermouth that has an orange citrus perfumed undertone; my garlic cognac cream shrimp; and meat from an Alaska king crab leg bought pre-cooked, frozen.

Perhaps think about all the other uses for my special dipping sauce (try it on my deep-fried battered oysters); or maybe drizzled over a pulled pork or pulled chicken taco filling or even over mixed raw vegetables and fruit such as tomatoes and or avocado. And it’s also good as a dip or drizzled over my deep-fried vegetable salad.

The vegetables are crunchy, barely cooked. Sort of like having been blanched except they are battered in my light Chinese tempura-like batter made with or without Belgian Stella Artois beer or Molson Export Ale, then deep-fried in 350 F Mazola Corn Oil.

Since either pairs well, if you should decide to imbibe, don’t forget that real beer drinkers always put a speck of salt in their glass before pouring.

Any way you enjoy my seafood gourmet dipping sauce, it’s one delicious sauce. It keeps well, refrigerated, for a few days. If you are serving on the deck or patio, keep anything made with mayonnaise out of the sun. Perhaps keep a cooler, with frozen gel bags in a separate container, on your patio or deck where you can hide and protect the sauce.

Paprika spicy butter coins for fish

Prepare a butter log for your compound butter coin reserve, using unsalted butter mash in a generous amount of sweet paprika and smoked paprika. Sprinkle in a little cayenne pepper. Add just a very tiny dab of your golden homemade oven-roasted garlic purée. If you enjoy jalapeño, mince a tiny bit and add to your butter log.

Sprinkle a little Atlantic Ocean hand-cultured sea salt and a small grind of pink peppercorns. Mince a little fresh fragrant basil or use LiteHouse brand fresh freeze-dried and add to the spicy butter mix. If you really love it, mince a little fresh rosemary and crush a little fresh dried deep-fried sage from your pantry storage jar. This is a powerful compound butter that has many uses. You might even baste a split grilled sweet rock lobster tail, letting a couple of your butter coin frozen reserve melt over the tails when cooked. Serve immediately.

You could add a coin or two in a mix of sour cream and Celebrity goat cheese to make a spicy dip to serve with fish fingers or nuggets.

You could even melt the spicy compound butter coins and drizzle over a generously mounded lobster roll, or a lobster loaded panna cotta mold, or on a slice of plain polenta topped with large shrimp or mixed seafood (use my chicken broth recipe).

Wrap the incredible spicy compound butter in a log shape. Nearly freeze but not rock hard. Cut the log in half and half again until your have coins, leaving plastic wrap on. Rewrap and freeze solid. Add to your frozen coin reserve collection.

This mix is ideal for bathing a whole fish of your choice in a preheated 450 F oven on the middle rack or grill in a rimmed baking sheet on your barbecue. Test for doneness after five minutes. The fish should just begin to flake – it depends on fish thickness. Tent and rest for several minutes; the fish will continue to cook in its own heat. Never overcook fish. You might like to serve my marinated medjool date gremolata on the side.

You could use my painted salmon in papillote recipe, topped with this compound butter for a spicy version of the dish.

When serving, perhaps sprinkle the cooked fish with a drizzle of dill sour cream.

---

© Lady Ralston’s Compound Butter Coin Reserve ~ because Butter makes it Better.