Stupid Sad Smelly Fish

Mr. Lawyer bet me that I wouldn't name this post "Stupid Sad Smelly Fish"....well who wins this one!? It is an apt name anyway because I was randomly in a sad mood even though my day was good, the fish was super smelly and therefore stupid. I've done a few things with frozen tilapia but over all I do not have a lot of experience with cooking fish. Especially fresh fish from the market. Evidently fresh fish is suppose to smell like the sea and not too fishy but it smelled like fish! So obviously I was worried about killing us all with food poisoning or at the very least having to fight for the bathroom. It also made my apartment smell like fishy fish. Gross.

I substituted collard greens for the mustard greens and it was delicious. However I was not impressed with the fish. I thought it was too fishy and didn't pick up any of the other flavors of the dish. Mr. Lawyer gobbled down two fillets and declared it was good. Obviously flounder is not my fish....unless it's fried.

Quick Steamed Flounder with Ginger Garlic Mustard Greens

(adapted from the NY Times)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable or peanut oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, more for drizzling
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1-inch-thick slice peeled fresh ginger root, minced
2 small bunches mustard greens, cleaned, stemmed and torn into pieces
1 tablespoon soy sauce, more for drizzling
2 flounder fillets, 12 ounces each
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Directions:
1. Heat oils in a very large skillet. Add garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add mustard greens, soy sauce and 3 tablespoons water, and sauté until greens start to wilt, 2 minutes longer.
2. Spread greens out in pan. Season flounder with salt and pepper, and place on top of greens. Cover pan, reduce heat to medium, and let fish steam until just cooked through, about 6 minutes. If pan dries out before fish is cooked through, add a little more water, a teaspoon at a time.
3. Uncover pan and transfer fish to serving plates. If greens seem wet, turn heat to high to cook off excess moisture. Serve greens on top of fish, drizzled with a little more sesame oil and soy sauce, if desired.

So to make myself feel better about the stupid sad smelly fish I made some cookies for our maintenance crew and door people who once again fixed a new problem (bathroom light switch) within four hours. Danny, the head maintenance guy (who lived across from us for a year before moving to a different floor) made a point of coming over to me in the lobby to inform me that he took care of everything and replaced the whole switch. It was really sweet that he wanted to let me know. It's also really nice to not have to worry that the light will go off in the middle of your shower. Unfortunately I am currently out of flour and had to cheat a little bit.

One should always have some Betty Crocker in the cupboards for emergencies. 

They are not as delicious as the homemade gingersnaps I made and they don't have the pretty crackly top but they still taste pretty good.