There's a new fish in town--Baked Flounder with Fresh Lemon Pepper

Baked Flounder with Fresh Lemon Pepper
The Best of Cooking Light Copyright 2004

2 tablespoons grated lemon rind I just used the rind of one large lemon, about 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 ¼ teaspoons black peppercorns, crushed
½ teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 (6-ounce) flounder fillets
Cooking spray
Lemon wedges (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Combine the first 5 ingredients. Place fillets on a jelly roll pan coated with cooking spray. Rub garlic mixture evenly over fillets. Bake at 425 degrees for 8 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve fish with lemon wedges, if desired.

Yield: 4 servings Per serving: 189 cal, 5.4 g fat, 32.2 g protein, 1.2 g carbs, .4 g fiber, 82 mg chol
_________________________

After my husband asked for a cease and desist order on salmon, I bought flounder. This is actually the second flounder recipe I've made but I accidentally deleted the picture of the last one before I could post about it. That time I had hot dogs as an alternate and my husband still ate the fish. This time he actually commented that dinner was really good (although I admit that he may have had an alterior motive). Flounder is less expensive that salmon and it's such a flat fish that it takes no time to cook. It doesn't quite have the health benefits of salmon but it's better than red meat.

This was very good but considering the effort (however small), was it better than bottled lemon pepper? I think so. I wasn't willing to zest more than one lemon though and I think one was plenty. I have a pet peeve about zesting more than one lemon for a recipe when it doesn't call for any other part of the lemon because then you end up with a produce bin full of naked, shriveling lemons. It definitely had a fresher taste than bottled lemon pepper and it really didn't take much effort, now that I own a Microplane (boy do I love my Microplane).

The only think I would change is that I would just use freshly ground pepper instead of 'crushed'. I'm not a big fan of hunks of black pepper.

Auction night! I can't wait although I really want peaches and I don't think they're ready yet, since I didn't notice any in the grocery store last night. I wasn't looking all that closely though. There were some beautiful peaches at the auction last week but they were actually too pretty to use for canning (and the price wasn't low enough).

Blast From The Past: Angie's Dad's Best Cabbage Coleslaw from August 2007. That's a really tasty cole slaw recipe.

Question of the Day: Where did you vacation this year (or where are you planning on vacationing this year)?