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Sunday Dinner – Fried Flounder
Served with Winter Tomato Bread Pudding and Coleslaw
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Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes Total time: 75 minutes |
- 1 medium green cabbage
- 2 carrots
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 bunch flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
- 1 lemon
- 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
- Yellow cornmeal (finely ground)
- 2 lbs. fresh flounder or other firm white fillets
- 6 slices good quality white bread
Shopping List
- Black pepper
- 4-½ cups Canola oil
- Chicken broth
- Dark brown sugar
- Distilled white vinegar
- Dry mustard
- Ground allspice
- Ground cinnamon
- Hot paprika
- Sea salt
- Unsalted butter
- White sugar
Pantry Items
- 9X13 baking dish
- Chef’s knife
- Cooling rack
- Dutch oven
- Large saucepan
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowls
- Paring knife
- Sheet pan
- Small saucepan
- Spatula
- Tongs
- Unprinted brown paper bags
- Vegetable peeler
- Wax paper
- Whisk
- Wooden spoons
Tools
- Wine: Try some luscious Brooklyner Weisse or Pilsner from Brooklyn Brewery
- Dessert: Lemon Bars
- There may be leftover coleslaw and tomato bread pudding, lucky you! Also, you may want to prepare a couple extra helpings of the fried flounder – it’s delicious.
Suggestions
- When you walk in the door
- Rinse the flounder and put it in the fridge
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Get out Pantry Items
- Get out Tools
- Assemble the ingredients
- Put 4-inches canola oil into the Dutch oven
- Refrigerate the beer
- Prep
- Rinse and pat dry the parsley. Pluck ½ cup leaves.
- Cut the lemon into 4 sections, lengthwise.
- Put the diced tomatoes in the large saucepan.
- Add 1 cup chicken broth, ½ cup (packed) dark brown sugar, 3/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. dry mustard, 1/4 tsp. allspice, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir and put over low heat.
- Melt 2 tbsps. butter in the small saucepan.
- Grease the baking dish with some of the melted butter.
- Cut the bread slices into 1/2-inch cubes, and put these in the baking pan. Drizzle them with the remaining butter.
- Measure 1/4 cup distilled vinegar, ½ cup canola oil, 1/4 cup white sugar, and 1/4 cup water into a large bowl. Whisk.
- Measure 1-1/2 cups cornmeal onto a piece of waxed paper. Mix into it, with your fingers, ½ tsp. hot paprika, ½ tsp. salt and a sprinkling of black pepper.
- Cut the flounder fillets into 2-1/2 inch wide pieces. Refrigerate.
- Line a sheet pan with unprinted brown paper grocery bags.
- Start Cooking
- Check the tomato mixture. Stir it. If the sugar is dissolved, taste it and adjust the seasoning, then pour it over the bread cubes.
- Put the tomato pudding in the oven and forget about it for 55 minutes.
- While the tomato pudding is baking, dip the flounder pieces in the cornmeal mixture and put them on the cooling rack for 10 minutes.
- Prepare the coleslaw. Cut the cabbage into quarters, and cut out and discard the core. Finely chop the cabbage.
- Peel the carrots and mince them.
- Peel and mince the onion.
- Mince the parsley leaves.
- Put the vegetables and the parsley into the bowl with the vinegar mixture, and toss, toss, toss. Refrigerate.
- Dredge the flounder fillets for a second time in the yellow cornmeal. Refrigerate.
- Set the table. Open a beer, read the Sunday paper. You can take a break until about 10 minutes before the tomato pudding is supposed to be fully baked.
- When it’s time, put the Dutch oven with the oil in it over medium-high heat. Heat it until it is about 375F. If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a cube of bread into it. It should pop to the surface and turn golden in less than a minute.
- While the oil is heating, check the tomato pudding. If it is puffed, firm and golden, remove from the oven and set on the cooling rack (wipe off the cornmeal first!). If it isn’t, continue baking until it is puffed, firm and golden.
- Remove the breaded flounder fillets from the fridge.
- When the oil is hot, add 3 pieces of fish at a time and fry them. If the fillets are thin, the pieces will fry in 3 minutes. If they’re thick, it will take 6 minutes. To test, remove one piece and cut into it – if it breaks apart easily and is opaque, it’s cooked.
- Using tongs, remove the fish from the oil, letting excess oil drip back into the pan. Put the fillets on the paper-lined sheet pan.
- When all the fish is fried, transfer it to a platter, garnish with the lemon quarters and take it to the table.
- Toss the coleslaw, taste it, adjust the seasoning, and take it to the table too. Dinner is ready! Don’t forget the tomato pudding and the beer!
