In the name of research I went flounder fishing this week. Prior to this trip, the only fish that I had ever caught was an Allegheny River suckerfish. Since I’m working on a book about seafood, it seemed like the ideal time to hit the water and land a far more delectable fish.

Found in the Atlantic Ocean, flounder is, as you probably can tell from the above photo, a flatfish. It’s related to sole, dab and plaice. Like all flatfish, it swims on its side and has eyes situated on one side of its head.

Camouflaged by its coloring, flounder buries itself in the sand to hide from predators. Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t thwart commercial fishermen who catch great numbers of it with bottom trawls. As a result of this fishing practice, the flounder population has dwindled, leaving novices like me as well as skilled amateurs with meager catches. In 7 1/2 hours I caught three flounder, two of which were undersized and had to be tossed back into the ocean. I couldn’t chalk this up to skill for my seasoned fishing buddies had the same bad luck.

With its mild flavor and delicate flesh, flounder wins over many reluctant seafood eaters. Sold filleted, it responds well to such simple techniques as baking, broiling, poaching, steaming and sautéing. Because it is such a thin fish, you should cook flounder for only a few minutes. To ensure that it doesn’t dry out and fall apart, many chefs advise cooking it for less than 5 minutes.

Flounder partners nicely with a variety of foods including bell peppers, Gruyere and Parmesan cheeses, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and zucchini. Its subtle flavor is also complimented by butter, chives, cream, dill, fennel, lemon, mint, parsley, shallots, tarragon and white wine.

Refrigerated, whole flounder will keep for 2 days. Fillets will keep for 1 day. Due to the high level of PCBs found in flounder, the Environmental Defense Fund recommends eating this fish no more than once/month.

BAKED FLOUNDER
This recipe comes courtesy of friend and far more experienced fisherwoman, Lisa Hancock.
Serves 4

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 flounder fillets
1 lemon, halved
salt, to taste
ground black pepper, to taste

Place a Pyrex baking dish on the upper oven rack and preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit.

Drop the butter into the hot baking dish, being careful not to burn yourself. Swirl the butter around the dish and then add the flounder fillets, spooning melted butter over the tops to coat.

Bake for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the fish from the oven, squeeze lemon juice over the fillets and return to the oven. Bake until the fillets are opaque in color, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove and season with salt and ground black pepper. Serve with grilled zucchini, sauteed spinach or a salad featuring tomatoes and bell peppers.