Mix & Match Fish and a Chocolate Cobbler

Way back in the day, before I met Bo, I didn't know how to cook fish.  So, I never ever cooked it - ha!  Don't get me wrong, I l-o-v-e salmon, and sushi is just about always a yummy option.  But then I met Bo, and he's a cowboy and a hunter and a fisherman, so of course, he loves fish too.  Voila!  Reason to learn how to cook it!  I've slowly been adding fish to our dinner rotation, and I now serve it a couple of times every week. 

This recipe is always my go-to when I'm in a hurry or didn't make a trip to the store for fancier ingredients.  It started out as a Sea Bass recipe, and then I tried it Salmon, and then I tried it on Tilapia.  I'm guessing that it'll be yummy on just about any kind of fish.  It's so quick to throw together - and healthy - that I keep going back to it.  As such, we give it 5 Spoons Way Up High.

The dessert recipe here is..well..Interesting.  But good!  The best way I can describe it is that it's a cakey brownie with a built-in fudge sauce.  I'd never made a "pudding cake" before, so this was all new to me.  I included photos of each step so that you can see how it looks, but if you were to just throw this together, it would be really quick.  I'm thinking that it would be a fabulous chocolately comfort food to whip up after dinner some night.  We give it 4 Spoons, but only because we both love good ol' brownies so, so much.

Enjoy!

Mix & Match Fish

1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. Old Bay Garlic & Herb seasoning
3 Tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 filets sea bass (or salmon or tilapia!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a shallow baking dish with Pam.  In a cute* bowl, throw in everything but the fish.  Melt it in the microwave.  Stir. 

Bake fish for 10 minutes**, then flip. Dump on butter garlic mixture and bake an additional 5-7 minutes or until easily flaked with a fork.  Yum.

* Hey, if we're in a hurry, throwing together some semblance of dinner, we may as well make it a cute experience, right?
** My Tilapia filets were thin, so I only baked them 7 minutes per side.

Ingredient Lineup:

Dump the mixture onto the filets and continue baking.

Dig in!

Chocolate Cobbler
courtesy of Allrecipes.com
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. white sugar
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 c. boiling water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in an 8x8 inch baking dish while the oven preheats.


In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, 3/4 c. sugar, and 2 Tbsp. cocoa. Stir in milk and vanilla until smooth. Spoon this batter over the melted butter in the baking dish.  Stir together the remaining 1 c. of sugar and 1/4 c. cocoa. Sprinkle over the batter. Slowly pour boiling water over the top of the mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven, until set (but still a little jiggly). Serve warm with ice cream.

Ingredient Lineup:

The dry ingredients.

(They look harmless enough, right?)

After melting the butter in your pan, add in the cocoa-milk mixture.

(Those burbling bubbles worried me a tad.)

Then pour over the cocoa-sugar layer.

(Is it just me or could this be Barbie quicksand?  Just me?)

Then pour over the boiling water.

(Eeeeeeek.  This doesn't look promising in the least!)

(You ought to click-zoom just to see how weird this looks.)

Holy Mackerel!  This looks gooood!

Whoa.  I had no idea that this would be on the bottom!
It doesn't get much better than a built-in fudge sauce.

Who wants a scoop?