Fish in Lemon Mustard Sauce....and err..Honey, too!

Doesn’t the picture look dreadful? So unappetizing! And yet how much we all loved the dish. Just goes on to prove that looks can be so deceptive. 

I had to prowl on the net again when the husband brought home this 2.5 kg rohu fish. I hardly know a few fish recipes and I generally keep on carrying out experiments till all of us get tired of them. As a matter fact, I don’t think I made this recipe the correct way. Oops! The secret is out! Maybe that is why the picture did not come out well. Hmm.

Then again, I made the recipe with rohu fish steaks, which is an Indian fresh water fish and is very mild in taste. The original recipe (or rather recipes, as I mixed and matched 2-3 of them) called for sole, flounder or haddock fillets. Now, who wants to wait till those fish come home? 

Anyhow, the recipe seemed super simple and I thought I could whip it up easily for dinner after a hard day at office. As usual, I am always hit by trepidation when the dish is about to be served. What if the family rejects it outright? What if it only tastes good on the net and is actually unpalatable?  I am assailed by all these thoughts till I can bear no more and start tasting the dish right from the pan. 

At the first instance, I felt that the lemon-mustard sauce was too sour. The husband loves sour. Yaay! But then, the in-laws prefer sweet to sour. What a dilemma! I had to please everyone at the dining table. Finally, at the last moment, I added a dash of honey to the sauce and crossed my fingers. Que sera sera. Who said cooking dinner for a family is an easy job? 

Thankfully, not a word against the dish was said and everyone seemed to relish it. I peeked at everyone’s faces furtively. No word means good sign. Finally the husband was done with his dinner. “Good job,” he said. Ah well, feminism be damned. That compliment made a paranoid woman happy that evening.

Shall we have a look at the recipe, then?

Fish in Lemon Mustard Sauce

Ingredients:

4-6 steaks of rohu fish or any other firm white fish

4-5 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard

1 teaspoon honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Marinate the fish steaks with salt and pepper for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a rimmed baking dish with silver foil. Place the fish on the foil and dot each piece with a dollop of butter. Although it was not mentioned, I covered the fish with another foil paper and baked for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining butter (depending on how rich a sauce you prefer) and lemon juice in a pan until the butter melts. Continue to cook, swirling the pan almost constantly, until the butter turns light brown, for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the mustard. Add a dash of honey and season lightly with salt and pepper.  Stir well.

Spoon the sauce over the fish and serve immediately.

There you are – a steaming plate of fish in lemon-mustard, and if I may add, honey sauce. Enjoy it with mashed potatoes on the side and buttered peas. As for us, kharkhowa Assamese that we are, we had the fish with rice!