Imperial crab stuffed flounder

So, I learned something this weekend.  I do not like flounder. I'm big on most fish, I love salmon even though I can't make it much since Justin doesn't like it, my fave is tilapia, I'm a huge fan of tuna and swordfish, and I really enjoy cod....add to that crab, lobster, shrimp, and most other seafood and I'm usually down for anything.  This is the 2nd type of fish that I've tried and just wasn't a big fan of (the first was skate wing at Sborocco...they both just seemed really fishy to me).  I know Justin wasn't a fan either, and Christina let Nate finish her plate (he absolutely raved about it for some reason), so it wasn't my best dinner party!  Good thing the sides and dessert were good :)

We had Christina and Nate over for dinner and she is a foodie like me, so I thought trying something new would be a good idea. I guess I learned my lesson there!  Although I didn't like the actual flounder, I loved the imperial sauce and crab that it was stuffed with...so I would do this again with a different base for the stuffing next time. I think a tilapia or cod would work great as they are pretty mild....

So, here we go...for the imperial sauce:

1/2 cup mayo (I used fat free)

1 large egg (lightly whipped)

1 squeaze fresh lemon juice

1 t sugar

1 t old bay seasoning

6 oz lump crab meat (picture below was before adding the crab)

This recipe is for 2 servings, so I doubled it to serve 4 people...

Mix all the sauce ingredients together until well blended. Place 4 large filets of flounder in your baking dish, and place 1/4th of your filling on top of each filet.   Take the remaining 4 filets, and split them in half, placing one half on each side of the stuffing, leaving the top visible.  I was super excited to cook these after seeing how they looked in the pan! Place a little water in the pan to keep it from drying out, and cook the fish at 350 dgrees for 25-30 minutes. 

This recipe came from the blog of a chef and author called http://www.tablefortwocookbooks.blogspot.com/ and his picture was amazing, I will even post it as a comparison so you can see how embarrassingly wrong mine came out looking. As I've said though, if it tastes good, what does it matter? Except this didn't taste good, haha! If you like flounder, I would recommend this for sure, the crab imperial sauce is amazing.  But if you don't like flounder, give it a shot with a more mild fish, as I plan to do!

I had a large amount (I'm talking Sam's Club sized) of fresh spinach that I made a bed out of for this fish and it turned out so well I will be doing that again for our parmesan tilapia this week.  I threw a bunch of that in a bowl, added 2 T of light butter, as well as 2 cloves of garlic freshly minced and some cracked pepper, into the microwave to wilt before putting on the plate to set the fish on top of when I plated. 

I found myself digging under the fish for some spinach at times it was so tasty, and it was a very nice compliment to the sauce and crab.  So, Im sure this is a no-no in the blog world but this is what it was supposed to look like:

And here is what it did look like!  Hahahaha....I lose.  See what I mean with other people's blogs and their food photography? It's very intimidating, but strangely inspiring! Honestly though, this recipe would have been great had I been a flounder lover...don't let me scare you off from trying it, this guy has some amazing recipes on his blog, and I'm positive that this one will be great with a fish more to my taste preference!