Poached Fish

This is a super easy, really good way to fix many different kinds of fish. Personally I have used catfish, tilapia and salmon. Those are the types of fish that are cheapest most readily available around here. I am sure you could use almost any white, flaky fish you wanted. I have even cooked this while camping. In fact, the recipe originally came form my Great Aunt Margaret who made this for us at our land after we had caught a bunch of catfish too little to fillet. She was a wonderful cook and a fabulous fisherwoman and was not dismayed at all by our tiny catches. She skinned them and placed them into foil packets and stuck them right down in the coals of the campfire. To this day it is the most delicious fish I have ever eaten. So when I was too chicken to try to fry fish at home, I remembered Aunt Margaret and made foil packets up and put them in a 9 x 13 dish and cooked them in my oven. It worked like a charm. Then one time, I ran out of foil so I skipped that step and it still worked out fine. And a new family favorite was born! Here's what you need:

Salt, pepper, lemon juice, butter and fish. That's it! First step is cut up the butter. I do it like this:

It yields from six to eight thin flats sections of butter. I lay half of them in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish and then add a nice sprinkling of freshly ground salt and black pepper. Then pour in some lemon juice.

Now, remember, this is a fish dish so be on the lookout for pirates....

"ARGH ME HEARTY!!"

Lay the fillets on top of the butter sections, then repeat the butter, salt, pepper and lemon juice on top of the fish as well.

Bake in a 350 degree oven. The amount of time will differ each time you cook this. I always start off with about 20 minutes. Then I check the fish to see if it flakes easily with a fork. This time I put it all back in for another 5 minutes.

You may be able to tell in the picture that the bigger piece on the left wasn't quite done yet. So I served the other pieces and put Mr. Big back in for a few more minutes until he flaked nicely for me. I paired this with some Parmesan noodles and a nice salad of baby spinach and spring greens. Now don't panic like my husband did when he looked in this pan. He said, "How much butter did you use?!" Remember there is lemon juice as well in there, and you don't exactly get a spoon and drink the juice in here. I like to think that this dish is actually a healthy option (please don't burst my bubble by disagreeing). The butter keeps it from sticking and gives it a little flavor too. Hey.....has anyone seen what happened to those pirates??