Weeknight cooking: Barramundi!

Yes, it's on a paper plate. Sue me. I don't want to wash dishes!

I have a confession to make. I haven't really cooked all week. With my and the hubby's schedules, it's been tough to get into the kitchen. Wednesday, I threw some burgers on the grill, but I hate to even claim that much, since in my haste, I accidentally seasoned them with a rosemary garlic blend instead of pepper (not a bad mix, but not great either). 

So tonight, after buying cart full of meat and fish yesterday in preparation for a possible government shutdown, I (and my pocketbook) decided I'd better cook tonight. But I also knew that I had a limited amount of time to get a meal on the table before the hubbs had to head off yet again for a church lock-in. 

So I figured that my motto for the evening would be KISS -- keep it simple stupid. I decided to cook Barramundi, a fish I just heard about last week and for which a commissary coupon was offered, and the fresh green beans I'd bought last week before they went bad.

When I say I went simple, I mean simple! I chopped some fresh garlic and threw it in a hot pan with some melted butter. In went the fish, which I'd only seasoned with kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Once cooked (took about 5 -7 minutes), I took it off, squeezed a lemon over it, then wiped down the pan and put in a little olive oil. More garlic, then I added the green beans, which I'd blanched (boiled for a short while, then immersed in an ice water bath). I'd boiled the beans in salted water, so I only added a bit of pepper and a splash of soy sauce.

I had two problems with this dish. 1) s I used a too-small pan, which meant that all my fish didn't get cooked evenly and I ended up with an undercooked piece that had to be fixed later.  2) I was also Facebooking, so I let the green beans boil longer than I would have liked, so I didn't get that bright green color and slight crunch I wanted. But DH said they were good. In the future, I'd also toast some pine nuts to toss the green beans with.

All in all, I think it was  a pretty good meal, and it took about 20-30 minutes, including chopping the garlic and thawing the fish. If I'd cooked sauteed the beans in a different pan while I cooked the fish, it could have been done even quicker. But I didn't want to dirty another dish. 

So if you have some fish and veggies you need to get rid of, this is a quick and easy recipe that took fewer than 10 ingredients (fish, green beans, garlic, salt, pepper, butter, olive oil, lemon), most of which are probably already in the pantry.