What's For Dinner Wednesday: Legal Sea Foods-Inspired Baked Scrod

Hello everyone and hello Wednesday!  I hope that the start of your week has been as lovely as ours has been here in Chicago. After a very rainy start to our weekend, we had a sunny Sunday and it has continued to be warm and beautiful this week. It's really starting to feel like spring (or even summer) here!  I have to admit that the summer months are when I really start to miss living in New England. Whether is was Rhode Island or Boston there was something really magical about living near the coast and as wonderful as Lake Michigan is, it just isn't quite the same.

One of the other things that I really miss about New England is good fresh seafood that's both affordable and readily available. I got really spoiled being able to walk 2 blocks to the store in Boston and pick up fresh seafood whenever. You really don't know what you've got 'til it's gone and you're buying freezer-burned salmon fillets at the grocery store fish counter. Alex's grandmother still lives in the Boston area and gave us a Legal Sea Foods giftcard as a wedding gift and I decided that this week we were going to finally put it to use. They have a great online store where you can order fresh seafood and schedule the delivery date. So, I came home tonight to 4 scrod fillets packed on dry ice on our doorstep. Amazing!

Legal Sea Foods restaurants serve this breaded baked scrod, which was one of the first seafood dishes that I tried after we moved to the East Coast when I was 12. It's really delicious, but I haven't had it in ages since we've been living in the Midwest. Even at the nicer markets, scrod is almost impossible to find here in Chicago so I was itching to order some and bake it Legal Sea Foods-style.  I found a great recipe online, made a couple tweaks, and it was great! It isn't quite as healthy as what I usually cook, but I figure we can make up for that with the rest of this week's dinners.  We've got two more fillets in our freezer so it's possible we'll be enjoying it again very soon.

Legal Sea Foods-Inspired Baked Scrod

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs. scrod fillets (cod would also work)
• 1 Tbs. butter, divided
• 1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil, divided
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 medium onion, halved and sliced thin
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs *I'm pretty sure Legal actually used crushed Ritz or oyster crackers
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbs. fresh parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat 1/2 Tbs. butter and 1/2 olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Saute the onion in oil and butter mixture until soft, but not browned. In a medium sized bowl, combine the panko crumbs with lemon zest, parsley, and 1/2 Tbs. of melted butter, 1/2 Tbs. of olive oil, and the juice of half the lemon. Once the onions are soft, add red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Add to the onions, the remaining lemon juice, and the white wine, and cook for 1 more minute. Spread the onion and lemon mixture over the bottom of a small baking dish (just large enough to  hold all the fish snugly). Place the fish on top of the onions and season the fish with salt and pepper and a slight drizzle of olive oil. Divide the panko topping evenly over the fish and give a final light drizzle of olive oil over the top. Bake for about 25 minutes until fish is cooked through and opaque in the center and the crumbs are nicely browned. Cover with foil half way through baking if the top is browning to fast.


Recipe derived from original by Everything Tasty Kitchen via Food.com.


Here are some other great seafood recipes to try:

Lemon, Balsamic, & Thyme Tuna with Roasted Pepper Salad  
Pan Seared Cajun Salmon with Broccoli Slaw 
Sun Dried Tomato & Feta Baked Shrimp 
Fresh Herb & Lemon Grilled Whitefish Packets 
Pancetta Baked Scallops