Fried Flounder

When I was a kid, the only fish we ever had at our house were fish sticks, Gordon’s Fishermen beer-battered cod, or tuna fish. We never had real fish or even shellfish; my parents liked to go to seafood restaurants down the Jersey shore. 

I’ve always been leery of fishy fish; I never order it out or make it at home. However, I do make shellfish all the time. Whenever I watch cooking programs, I am always interested in watching different chefs prepare different fish types.

Our friend Martin, a chef, has always introduced us to different kinds of fish over the last two years with the premise that if we don’t like it, he will make us something else. He’s never had to make us something else, by the way. 

I know how much people love salmon, but never eating it when I was younger made me shy away from it, ok afraid of it. I have had it on several occasions; I will eat it, but it’s not my favorite, and I would never order it out. Martin’s salmon is better than others that I’ve choked down since his salmon isn’t fishy at all; he removes the blood vein that tends to make it fishy. I had to eat creamed salmon at a friend’s house at a holiday dinner party and suffered through that meal, but I ate it because that’s what we had to do when we were being brought up.

Martin has made us other kinds of fish; Oysters Rockefeller, which was my favorite! I’ve still never tried a raw one, but I want to with a mignonette sauce. I need a couple of drinks in me, and someone who loves them, and I would try them.

Over the last couple of years, the only type of real fish I’ve made is fish fry-style using cod or haddock. Last month, I picked up some frozen flounder fillets. I wasn’t sure what I would do with it but knew I would come up with something. 

I looked through some flounder recipes, went the safe route, and made flounder bread with a “Ritz” cracker crust. I’m our case a gluten-free cracker crust. I used the brand Schar’s entertainment crackers that are similar to Ritz. I know it’s still like a fish fry, but I’m still new at this fish jazz.

I read a couple of recipes and knew I could wing it. I set up my usual dredging station with cornflour, eggs and I ground up the gluten-free Ritz-type crackers in a food processor. I breaded the fish earlier in the day; one recipe said to bread the fish and let it sit for an hour or two in the refrigerator uncovered; it helps the breading stick to the fish better. Okie Dokie, by the way, it worked.

I used the shallow fry method on the flounder using a cast iron frying pan. Once the fish was golden and crispy, I let them drain on a baking rack over a baking sheet pan that I had in the oven set at 140 degrees while I fried the rest of the fish. 

I made a simple tartar sauce and served the fried flounder with fresh lemons and Indian spiced lemon rice as a side dish. I chose the Indian spiced lemon rice because I didn’t want the whole meal to be fried, so french fries were out. The Indian spices and the lemon flavor from the rice enhanced the dish rather than weighing it down as french fries could.

The flounder came out better than I ever thought it would. The fish had absolutely no fishy smell when it was raw. The house didn’t smell like fish either dinner. The fish wasn’t greasy or heavy with batter and had a lovely lemony flavor. For fried fish, it had a delicate texture and was pleasing to the palate.

I’ll be making this again, it’s something different from the usual suspects that appear at our dinner table, plus it tasted great. I was pretty happy that the meal came out so well and didn’t stink up the house.

I know lots of people who cook fish all the time, and for someone who likes to cook as much as I do, it’s bothered me that this is one category that I completely lack in. I’m not sure what I’ll try to make next or when I will have the chance to try my first raw oyster, but I want to at least. 🦪