Stuffed Flounder For Supper And Breakfast

During our seafood shopping trip we bought some flounder for the express purpose of stuffing it. And a few days later, Paula Deen’s brother Bubba (I wonder how many Bubba’s there are in the south) was on her show and they were making stuffed flounder. Theirs had the skin on it so I couldn’t stuff it as they did, but they said one thing that made the show worth watching – “we’re stuffing it with Bubba’s crab cake recipe.”

I’d been wondering what to stuff ours with but as soon as they said this, the little light bulb came on and I remembered the 2 pounds of crab meat we also bought on our seafood buying trip and the crab cake recipe we loved from Cathy, at Wives With Knives. I used a half recipe for one large piece of fish.

I considered several presentations – folding, rolling, putting the crab between the two fillets – but settled on just topping the fish with the crab mix so it could develop a little crust on top. So I guess it’s not really stuffed flounder, but rather crab topped flounder – I hate it when cooks take wide liberties with food and drink names. I saw one recently, where a drink was called a such-and such martini just because it was served in a martini glass, but had none of the martini ingredients. So I don’t believe I can call this stuffed flounder when it’s not actually stuffed - okay, soapbox is put away. 

To insure the crab mix stayed put, I cooked it in a dish that was slightly too small, thereby making the edges of the fish roll up a little.  I just seasoned the fish with a little S&P, and let the crab mixture do the rest.

Normally the crab is mounded up, but I was afraid the fish and crab on the edge would be cooked way more than that in the center, so I spread it as evenly as I could and sprayed the top with canola oil.

I cooked it in a 350* oven for 25 minutes then under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Here’s the finished dish.

I wanted a sauce and was torn between a mild mornay, or a more tangy tartar or remoulade sauce. I’d been wanting to make my first remoulade for a while, so I opted for using Mary’s recipe from Deep Dish South.

On our trip to NOLA back in Augest, I had a remoulade salad dressing at one of our restaurant stops so I decided to try this version as one.  Here's my plate.

First, the remoulade worked great as a salad dressing and will be used atop more greenery.  Second the remoulade was great on the seafood and will be a regular item in our fridge from here on. Third, I'm adding this to the list of fish dishes that I will serve to company, or in my restaurant if I had one - it was delicious - almost made my tongue slab my brain.  The only thing I might change is the amount of the crab mix I used as it was hard to get the flounder flavor - but I'm not sure I cared.

And what about the leftovers - glad you asked.

It's a cheesey, crabby, eggy, fish taco burrito - I choose eggs over shredded cabbage.  I had to save over a third of it for lunch.  Seafood and eggs - it's what's for breakfast.

We still have some seafood remaining so tune in for the "rest of the story" - so far I feel great about my $50 seafood purchase.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry