Flounder... the other white fish?

While Jeff loves shrimp, he doesn't tend to venture much further than that. Our seafood area of the recipe section to the left is fairly tiny compared to the rest and even so, most of those recipes involve shrimp! So, in an effort to get more fish into our diet, I made this Flounder with Smoked Paprika and Asiago Polenta recipe for dinner tonight.

Because the flounder will be quite strongly seasoned, a side of creamy polenta will get us started as a great canvas to set off the fish. If you want to cut down the time to prepare this part, you can use the finer-textured quick-cooking polenta which can be ready in about 5 minutes. If you can spare the 25 to 35 minutes (or longer if you can!) I prefer the depth of flavor that develops while cooking with a more coarse cornmeal. Once the polenta is ready, a good handful of Asiago is stirred in to add a little saltiness and a sharp flavor - to keep it creamy while you finish with the fish, be sure to just keep the pot covered. This will help slow down the polenta from setting up.

The fish is rubbed with a coating made from olive oil, smoked paprika and garlic powder. Once coated, the fillets are quickly cooked in a skillet just until they begin to flake - you could also do this in a grill pan, if desired. Now, the original recipe did call for Tilapia for the fish and Parmesan for the cheese in the polenta, but flounder looked superb at the market this morning and we wanted to add a slightly different flavor in the soft polenta. If you like a bit of spiciness, use a hot smoked paprika if you can locate it - besides the rich smoky flavor, it has a nice balance between a bit of heat and a touch of bitterness.

Recipes
Flounder with Smoked Paprika and Asiago Polenta