It's the Sauce

I scored the best find at Half Price books a few months ago. I was cruising the clearance section and saw a beautiful hard back cookbook called Best of the Best: the best recipes from the 25 best cookbooks of the year (from the editors of Food and Wine.) Sure, it's a bit dated (2006) but it features some huge cooking stars and chooses the best few recipes from whatever cookbook they published around 2006. They have recipes by Rick Bayless, Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Mario Batali, and many more. So tonight I looked through it and chose to make Paula Deen's Pecan Coated Fish with Remoulade Sauce.

It turns out this dish is Super easy and the sauce...oh the sauce...can I tell you this sauce is fabulous? I'm a sauce kind of girl. I've been known to choose meals based on what kind of sauce I desire to eat. I use many foods just as vehicles to get sauces to my mouth only because drinking sauce is frowned upon. I can take or leave shrimp, but I adore cocktail sauce! I like Chuy's food, but it's the tomatillo sauce that beckons me. Fish tacos are fine, but creamy jalapeno lime sauce is what I can't live without.

So, this remoulade sauce, which I had never heard of before today, is a fancy mayonnaise. I am not even a big fan of mayo, but this could be the best sauce I've ever eaten.

Here's the recipe:

4 grouper or tilapia fillets about 1 inch thick (4-6 ounces each)

1 stick butter melted

1 cup pecans (crumbed in food processor)

1 TBS butter

1 TBS vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350. Rinse and pat dry fish. Dredge in butter then press into pecans to coat. In oven proof skillet, heat the TBS of butter with the oil. When it begins to sizzle, sear the fish 3 minutes per side. Place skillet in oven for 6-10 minutes depending on thickness and desired doneness. Serve immediately with remoulade sauce.

Remoulade Sauce

1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/3 cup chopped green onion

2 TBS capers with juice

1 clove garlic minced

1 cup mayo

3 TBS olive oil

2 TBS fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

Place parsley, onions, capers and garlic in food processor and combine. Add the mayo, olive oil, lemon juice, and mustard. Blend well. Chill until ready to serve with seafood. Keeps (covered) in fridge for several weeks and also tastes good on asparagus, claims Paula.

And just an extra tip about this meal. It absolutely tastes best when eaten around 8 PM, after the kids are in bed, by candlelight, with someone you love.