Almond Flounder Meuniere - French Fridays with Dorie

When I went to the fishmonger to buy flounder for today's recipe, he shook his head at me. "No flounder," he told me. "How about sole instead?"

I panicked a little. What do I know about the different kinds of fish? Very little, considering I do like to eat sushi. He could have told me that mackerel would have been a good substitution and I wouldn't have batted an eye. I shrugged my shoulders and said OK. When I got home and looked at the recipe, I was relieved. This recipe is a cross between sole amandine and sole meuniere. See that? Serendipity.

According to Dorie's serving notes, this dish is best served with a simple side, like boiled potatoes. I found a recipe for broth-braised potatoes in the cookbook and somehow had all of the ingredients on hand. See that? Serendipity strikes again. But you'll have to excuse the appearance of the red potatoes. I needed to take care of the super creepy potato eyes that were beginning to sprout (Thanks Cher, for last week's goosebump-inducing description). Don't worry, the potatoes weren't poisonous - no greenish tinge at all and, as you can see, I dug ALL of the baby sprouts out of them. Next time, I'll peel them too, just to be on the paranoid side.

The "flounder" recipe was really simple to put together and the prep wasn't as messy as fried fish can be. None of the usual three-dish, eggy fingers, flour and bread crumbs spilled all over the counter, and darn it, now my nose itches and of course the phone's ringing too. It was more of a brush-brush, sprinkle-sprinkle, pat-pat kind of action, then into the frying pan they went!

The sole fillets were so large that I could only fit one in the skillet at a time. I had bought 4 fillets and made them all in one night. I used SO MUCH BUTTER frying them up, almost an entire stick. And there still wasn't enough butter to spoon over the fish as it was cooking. Do I sound like I'm complaining? Because I'm not! The browned butter mixed with lemon juice and the broth from the potatoes? That's like heaven right there.......mmmmmm!

I don't know if I was just hungry or if I was trying to prove something, but I scarfed down a whole fillet and three potatoes with my hands in 5 minutes flat. I ate caveman-style. It was not pretty. But it was delicious.

The verdict:

• Almond Flounder Meuniere, grade: A. I'll definitely be making these again, but next time I'm going to try using the grill burner outside. I have to keep the fried fish odor from permeating every room in the house. It was OK that night, but not so good the next morning, and pretty terrible the day after that.

• Broth-Braised Potatoes, grade: A+. OMG wow, were those delicious. I didn't think I'd be a fan of boiled potatoes, but consider me a convert!

You can see how the others fared here. And think about joining in the fun! Since we don't post the recipes for FFwD, you'll need your own copy of Around My French Table. The cookbook has some wonderful recipes, so it's worth it, even if you don't want to blog about it!

Thanks for reading, and happy eats!