baked, breaded haddock.

Do you guys think fish is scary? I used to. I had never cooked fish before because... well, it seemed fancy. Fish seemed like a eat-out kind of food. Better left for the cooks who know far more than me and work in restaurants. But guess what? It's not scary. Embrace it.

You see, I like fish. A lot. And ever since D started working in a seafood department, he loves fish. (I couldn't get him to try HADDOCK before, but now he tries scallops and herb-crusted talapia and craw-fish and calamari and everything else under the sun. Ugh.)

So since we both liked fish, I decided it was the perfect time to "learn" to cook fish. People, trust me, there is no learning involved. If you can cook a frozen pizza, you can make this fish. It is seriously the same skill level.

Not only is it SUPER easy, it's fast, delicious and healthy (well...it does have bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and butter on it. But it's fish! It still has to be better for you than a cheeseburger... right?) I'm not exaggerating when I say we have had this at least once a week for the past, oh, two months. D told me that when people buy haddock from him and they ask how they can cook it, he tells them this recipe!

So what am I trying to get at by all this rambling? If you have never cooked fish before, this is where you should start. After making this, you will feel confident enough to branch out into other types of fish or other ways to cook fish. (Personally, I really want to try fish tacos! Anyone got any good recipes? Shoot em' my way!)

Baked, Breaded Haddock

4 haddock fillets with the skin removed

1/2 cup milk 

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 

6 tbs butter

cooking spray 

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Cover the bottom of a baking sheet with tin foil (to help avoid mess) and place a rack on top of the foil. (I use a cookie cooling rack, it works great) Spray the rack with cooking spray to avoid sticking.

Put milk in a bowl. On a platter or a shallow dish, combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Working one fillet at a time, dip the fish in the milk to coat, then dip in the bread crumb mixture. Be sure to coat thoroughly, even picking bread crumbs up and patting onto the fish to ensure and even coating. Place on baking rack. Repeat until all 4 fillets are breaded. 

(Since it's just D and I, I only made 2. This recipe is for 4 though!)

 Melt butter in microwave and drizzle evenly over fish fillets. 

Bake in oven on top rack for 15 minutes.