Flavors by Four: Key West Style Striped Bass

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Key West Style Striped Bass

Last October I took a trip to the Florida Keys with my mom, sister and two of the girls. We go away every October for a few days to get together and have fun. We stayed in Marathon at the Tranquility Bay Beachfront Hotel and went to Lazy Days South Restaurant for dinner one night in a terrible thunder and lightning storm. We were planning on a nice oceanfront dinner and instead we were all moved into the middle of the dining room so we wouldn't get wet since the restaurant's walls were all open. This dish is a recreation of the dinner we all had that night. This striped bass was caught by my husband last week and was delicious. We usually make sure that he throws back all of the fish he catches but 2 or 3 times a year we ask him to bring one home since the meat is so white and flavorful and we all love eating it.

Ingredients:
6 fish filets (flounder, grouper or striped bass work nice)
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp butter, melted
5 key limes juiced
3 tomatoes, diced
1 bunch of scallions, diced
1 cup fresh parmesan cheese shaved

Directions:
Squeeze juice from limes. Put 1 tbsp of lime juice in small bowl. Mix juice with egg. Microwave butter until melted. Add rest of lime juice and place butter/lime juice mixture in freezer for a few minutes to harden. Add bread crumbs to another small bowl. Add olive oil to frying pan. Dip fish filets in egg mixture and then in bread crumbs. Saute fish on each side until golden brown.

Place filets in baking pan and turn oven on to 400 degrees. Take butter/lime juice mixture out of freezer. Spoon butter/lime juice mixture over top of fish filets. Place in oven for 10 minutes. While fish is baking, dice tomatoes and scallions and shave parmesan cheese. Mix tomatoes and scallions together in bowl.

Take fish out of oven carefully as it will be hot. Spoon tomato/scallion mixture over top of each piece. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of tomato mixture.