Day 49: Crab-Stuffed Flounder

OK. Maybe flounder is an East Coast thing or something. Because it's awful scarce around these parts. After attempting to special order flounder from New Seasons Market (dot com!) and failing, I tried not one, not two, but SIX fish markets in the Portland area. No dice. Finally, I contacted City Market, which used to be my favorite market when I lived in NW Portland. I got an answering machine and left a message, not really expecting an answer back. One hour later, after I had emailed Alex and said that we probably had to find an alternate food, City Market came through. They had flounder, or fluke, which is known as summer flounder!
Have you seen a flounder? Because I haven't. Here you go.

This was only the first hurdle in our flounder-fest. The recipe is not necessarily complex, but it is time consuming. I chopped onions, garlic, celery, red bell pepper and green onion, then sauteed that in butter. After that, I shredded crab meat and added Old Bay seasoning and bread crumbs. All of that is mixed together and then stuffed inside a flounder filet ($20 for one!), which involved creating a pocket accomplished by slicing the filet strategically. I pulled it off, albeit clumsily, and then the whole thing was seasoned with salt and pepper. I think it turned out lovely.

We squeezed lemon on top and then tasted it.

Alex didn't want to like it because of the crab, but that was his third bite (that's progress). He said it was fine, but a wee bit blah. I agree- it's a white fish, so it's not going to be super pungent or anything. I thought it was nice. I wouldn't necessarily crave it or even order it in a restaurant, but it turned out to be a solid meal option. The recipe I used called it 'elegant.' Maybe so. But I can't help but think I stuffed Sebastian the crab into Flounder from the Little Mermaid and then ate them both. Thanks a lot, Disney.