Going Lo-Co

Mmm Mmm Mustard Roasted Fish

Posted on August 16, 2011

OK, so I’ll admit that adding a cream sauce to fish is not the most lo-co of plans.  But there I was, under pressure.  It’s tradition that I make a fish dish at our annual family reunion at Cape Cod (look how lo-co I’ve been: the other big family dinners are steak and lobster/ribs!) It’s a diverse crowd, and I needed a new fish dish that all would enjoy.

Photo: Quentin Bacon

What inspired me was the not-great weather (clearly it wasn’t cooking lo-co as I went with a cream sauce).  As it was unusually cool, I decided to bake instead of grill the fish. So I turned to the ever-trustworthy Barefoot Contessa and chose a dinner I love but make only infrequently. I was thrilled that everyone at the table loved it too. In fact, Ina Garten’s Mustard-Roasted Fish recipe was so delicious they all asked for the recipe.

And that’s no small feat – these are my relatives.  Well, my husband’s, actually.  So, um, not an easy crowd.  Love them to pieces, but let’s just say there are a lot of opinions. Freely offered. Often. With no punches pulled. (Hence my need for an ample supply of Grey Goose, Corona and red wine at the Cape. And no bottles make it home. Ever.)

As it’s never once happened to me that every single person at a dinner party not only loves a dish, but actually asks for the recipe, I thought I should share it here. (Plus, posting it here means my husband’s family actually has to read my blog to get the recipe. LOL. Though I’m not all bad – I did mail a hard copy to my 85 year old mother-in-law so she doesn’t have to look it up online. As if that were possible. Sorry, Lynn, but I know you are not reading this so all is safe! Bros-in-law: if you rat me out, I will come after you.)

So then I got to thinking about whether this dish is even appropriate for Goin Lo-Co. What with the, um, you know, um, cream sauce?

So I scanned the recipe for nutritional info (yes, I realize, as someone trying to cook lo-co I should have looked before I made this dish. So shoot me).  It wasn’t there.

Digging around online, I was surprised to find that none of the online listings for this recipe list its nutritional info. Neither the Food Network version of this recipe nor the Barefoot Contessa site (photo link) listed nutritional info for this recipe.  Weird.

I finally found it on a Washington Post’s Recipe Finder.  Click here to view this version of the recipe, complete with nutritional info.

If you want all the nutritional details, see the end of this post (recipe PDF there, too). Overall, this dish is not so bad when you compare with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (more info here):

• Total Fat:  Reco is 44-78 grams of total fat per day, this fish dish has 12.  Woot.
• Saturated Fat:  Reco is 16-22 grams/day (and for lo-co, clearly it’s 16).  This dish has 7. Not bad at all.
• Cholesterol:  Reco is max of 300 mg/day – but 200 to lower heart disease risk. With 105mg, this dish is at about half of daily reco’d cholesterol.  Not great, but not awful.

So, this dish is not so bad – even though it has a cream sauce.  (And especially if you serve it with quinoa and grilled asparagus, like I did.)   I mean, if you don’t have fast food or any other bad, high fat/high cholesterol food that day, you can serve this recipe and feel like you served something delicious and relatively heart-healthy.

If you eat a burger for lunch (upcoming post soon), well, then, what can I say?  Try it another day, ok?

I’ve made this dish several times, with the following modifications:

• I use a little less salt & pepper than what’s called for in the recipe.
• Often I make it with cod rather than snapper – less fishy taste will appeal to more folks (and hey, it’s cheaper too).
• You need both kinds of mustard
• If you’ve never heard of creme fraiche, it’s found near cheese/sour cream in my area at both Trader Joe’s and Stop & Shop – ask if you don’t see it.

If you would like to download a PDF with my recipe notes, click here: Mustard-Roasted Fish a la Karen.

Hope you enjoy… Post a comment if  you try the dish!

Nutritional Details: This recipe, according to the Washington Post, has: 311 calories, 12g fat, 7g saturated fat, 105mg cholesterol, 956mg sodium, 6g carbohydrates, 0g dietary fiber, n/a sugar, 38g protein.