Now for the details…

Day 9 of 14. Today’s daily recipe was inspired by friends of ours, who actually were the patrons of our most recent batch of groceries (in other words, they went out and got us groceries and dropped them off for us on our doorstep. We waved at them through the window!) Well before all this whole isolation-stay-at-home-to-flatten-the-curve had started, we had been talking about doing a cooking class to go through some basics. The first “theme” that my friend Andrea had suggested was “stuff you roast in the oven and learn to do other stuff with the oven real good too”. Fair. Being a Zoolander fan, this theme truly spoke to me.

And so, for our first ever (though virtual, cause we need to social distance y’all!) cooking class today, we did a one pan meal of pecan-crusted fish, roasted potatoes, and vegetables.

Let’s get started, shall we?

We start by preheating the oven to 425ºF/220ºC. When the oven is preheated, place the pecans in a pan in the oven and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the pecans are toasted, but not burnt. Set aside and let the pecans cool.

Next, we move on to prepping our vegetables. We will keep our potatoes separate from the rest of the veggies. We do this in order to allow the potatoes to dry out slightly and get nice and brown and crispy. Cut the baby potatoes in half. Place them in one corner of a parchment-lined cookie sheet, then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir a bit to coat all that potatoey-goodness with oil, then sprinkle with salt.

Next, peel your carrots and cut into large chunks, about 1 1/2″ or 3 cm. Peel the shallots and cut into large slices. In another corner of your cookie sheet, place the carrots and shallots. Drizzle with the other 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and stir. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and the dried thyme. Place the cookie sheet in the oven for 5 minutes.

This will get the cooking started. But after 5 minutes, take the cookie sheet out of the oven, and stir (potatoes and veggies separate!) then place back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and stir again, then place back into the oven for another 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and stir the fennel into the veggies. Then place the fish onto an open space on the cookie sheet. I used mahi-mahi (again, we had some in the freezer that we bought out of the back of some dude’s truck), but any fillet of white fish should work.

We are going to dress our fish before placing back in the oven. Mix together the shredded garlic, mayo and mustard. Spread the sauce over the fish and smooth evenly over the fillets.

Next, chop the pecans and sprinkle them over the fish. Place the cookie sheet back into the oven and cook for 5 minutes. Remove one last time, stirring the potatoes, and the vegetables. If the vegetables seem a bit dry , drizzle a bit more olive oil over top. Place back in the oven for 5 more minutes, or until the fish registers at 145ºF/65ºC.

Remove, and plate. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Happy eating.