Fish Dish plus Cooking Pot Epiphany
Last night a friend came over after work, sort of a spur of the moment thing - meaning, I hadn't planned what to make for dinner. She's helping upgrade eldest daughter's Mac computer & I felt I should feed her properly. Me and DH would have just ordered a pizza.
After work ran to A&P, saw Tilapia fillets for $4.99. Bought 2 lbs. Mushrooms, 2 packs for $5 of baby bella. Tomatoes - wanted the New Jersey uglies but they were $3.99 so I went with plain.
Had in mind to make a fish dish for which I "sort of" have a recipe. You prepare a sauce then place the fish in the sauce & bake for about 30 minutes at 375. Usually, I do the sauce on the stove then transfer to a baking dish. Being Friday night, being lazy, it hit me that I should find a cooking pot that can go on the stove and in the oven to save myself washing up. I remembered an old, oval, enamel covered cast iron pot that was my gran's that somehow, despite many travels, ended up with me. I pulled it out of the back of the pot cupboard and made my fish dish in it - sauce on top of stove, transferred fish into it and placed in oven. It's only about a 3 qt. pot, so I was worried all that fish and sauce wouldn't fit, but it did. That's when it hit me! I NEED to get an enamel cast iron pot that could at least take a chicken. AHA! Le Creuset. Boy is it pricey though! My gran's pot probably cost less than one UK Pound - it's more than 50 years old. I am inspired and preparing to shop.
Here's an approximation of the fish recipe - it came out really good. I chucked in some of the Pino Grigio I was consuming at the time (about 2 glasses - 8oz).
For the 2lbs of fish, I juggled the ingredient amounts - also taking into consideration limited size of pot.
Sauce
Saute 1 onion, 3-4 cloves garlic in a little olive oil. When soft, reduce flame, add a gently rounded tblsp flour, some (tsp or so) dry Coleman's mustard, thyme (tsp or so), salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce (2 tblsp).
Added mushrooms (+/- 3 cups). Things were looking dry so that's when I was inspired to throw in the wine.
Added chopped tomatoes (2 med size).
Added fish. The fish really filled the dish, and sauce didn't completely cover, so, I threw more mushrooms on top, a couple of sprinkles of Worcest. sauce, thyme, salt & peper and placed in oven to bake for just over 30 minutes.
Served with rice (2 cups cooked in a Corning Ware French white 2.5 qt casserole dish in 4 cups salted water) cooked for 17 minutes on high in microwave.
