Sauteed Flounder with Yellow Bell Pepper Relish and Sweet Potato Mash

Sauteed Flounder with Yellow Bell Pepper Relish and Sweet Potato Mash

Serves 2-3

Sweet Potato:

1 medium size sweet potato, pricked multiple times with a fork or knife

1 teaspoon of your favorite spice mix

1 tablespoon butter

Set toaster oven at 400 degrees and place sweet potato in oven.  Set timer for 45 minutes.  When timer goes off, check sweet potato with a knife.  If a knife goes in easily, it’s ready.  If not, place back in the oven for another 15 minutes.  Set aside until ready to eat.

When ready to eat, cut the sweet potato lengthwise and squish at both ends to form a boat.  Put the butter in the boat along with the spice mix.  Take a fork and mash everything together.  You could cut in half and serve it like this with skin on, or continue to mash, discard the skin, and put the mash on the plate.  It’s completely a matter of preference.

Flounder:

¾ pound de-boned Flounder filet

1/8 cup Olive Oil

3 tablespoons of your favorite spice mix (if your spice mix has salt in it already, skip the salt)

1 teaspoon sea salt

Place flounder in a zip lock and pour in the olive oil.  Mix the spice mix and salt together and sprinkle in the bag.  Seal the bag up and rub the spice mix all around the filet.  If it’s too dry, just put some water in there to loosen up the marinade.  Place in fridge while you prepare the relish.

Relish:

1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped

½ red onion, chopped

1 cup orange juice

¼ cup red wine vinegar

¼ cup granulated white sugar (any sugar you have on hand should work fine)

¼ teaspoon salt (I happened to have key lime zest salt in the pantry, but kosher or sea salt will work.)

I loosely followed a recipe but we didn’t have very good cell service.  Each time I tried to pull up the directions, my data failed, so I winged it.  It was absolutely awesome, but when I got internet the following day I looked at the recipe and saw I had made it completely different than the recipe.  Here is the link to the recipe, but know that I didn’t follow it at all!

www.eatingwell.com/recipe/248953/yellow-pepper-relish/

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and boil.  Stir very regularly until the sauce is reduced by more than half.  You want most of the liquid to be gone, but if it gets too dry and starts sticking, just add a tablespoon of water at a time and keep stirring.  When it gets to the consistency you want (like relish, think pickle relish in a jar) pull off the heat and keep covered with foil until you are ready to use.

You can see there is a little bit of liquid still in the relish.  Once this get's a little more syrup-y/jelly like you are good to go.

Once the relish is done and sweet potato out of oven, you are ready to cook your fish.  We built a fire and used a cast iron skillet, but this can easily be done on a stovetop.  The fish took about 5 minutes per side, but keep an eye on it to prevent overcooking and burning.  Flounder is a flaky fish.  To check if it’s done just press down on the flakes with your finger.  If it easily flakes apart, it’s done.  We had to put a piece of foil over the top to finish it off for the last 3 minutes, or so.

Place a serving of fish on the plate with the sweet potatoes.  Quickly reheat the relish for a minute so it’s hot when you pour over the serving of fish.  Keep in mind that the recipe I was supposed to be following actually serves it cold.  We served it hot.  Serve it cold or serve it hot.  It doesn’t matter.

Enjoy with a crisp glass of white wine in front of your campfire!  And hopefully you won't have any armadillo creepers at your site.