Roasted white fish wrapped in smoked bacon with lemon mayonnaise and asparagus

Those of you who know me have probably gathered that I often seek to fulfill personal "culinary quests" when looking for new recipes. Two such quests are as follows:

• I'm trying to learn more "weeknight dinner" (i.e. prepared in 40 minutes or less, delicious and nutritious) recipes, because lord knows I do enough fancy 3-hour Sunday afternoon affairs and that won't be viable once I get a real job. Upon finding such a recipe that I really like you might hear me say, "This is going in my weekly rotation."

• I'm trying to find a fish recipe that my lovely but pescephobic girlfriend might choke down without incident. It is my notion that she must eventually be compelled to tolerate fish dinners, dammit, because they're such a good lean source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and the like.

I think I might have found a good one here. After all, how could anything wrapped in bacon and slathered with lemon zest and fresh rosemary be too intolerable? And I can prepare it in under half an hour, nice! (Definitely "weekly rotation" material.)

Baked Sea Bass in Paper

If the picture looks familiar, that's because you've seen it before, in my Asparagus Salad with Sweet Balsamic Vinaigrette post. As promised, here's how you make the entree I paired it with.

This one is another gem I picked out of a Turkish cookbook while living in Ankara. It's quick and easy, requiring only about 20 minutes of prep and 20 minutes preparation -- earning it a place on my weeknight cooking rotation -- and tastes wonderful. My mother claimed it as a new favorite and immediately asked me for the recipe, for what that's worth.

As every cook recognizes, preparing any meat dish requires a touch for retaining moisture. Too much time or heat can result in a dessicated fillet with not much flavor or texture to its name, while too little risks undercooking the meat and leaving you susceptible to all kinds of nasty food-borne illnesses. This recipe sidesteps the dilemma in a unique and effective way: by baking the fish inside a parchment paper packet. Done right, this method keeps all the flavors and moisture trapped inside the steak while cooking it clean through -- resulting in a delicious entree that will earn you many compliments!

This dish is also pretty quintessentially Turkish. Turkish recipes all tend to draw from the same basic group of ingredients and seasonings: lemon, parsley, thyme, red pepper flakes, cumin, tomatoes, onion, and olive oil (making us 6 for 8). Simple, but effective -- just because it's foreign doesn't mean it has to be exotic.

Recipe after the jump:

Fillet of Sole stuffed with Shrimp and Mushrooms

Fillet of Sole stuffed with Shrimp and Mushrooms

Hello Amherst foodies!

If you don't know or remember me, my name is Zach and I graduated from Amherst in 2009. My cooking style is pretty much self-taught, drawing occasional insights and techniques from the internet, my mother, my girlfriend, and other sources. I tend to gravitate towards lean meats, fish, and pastas, because these seem to be the types of dishes that I cook best. Since my year teaching abroad in Turkey I've also added some Near Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Greek-ish recipes to my repertoire, so you can also look forward to seeing a few of those in my corner of the blog.

I've already posted this particular dish on planworld and my personal blog, but I'm sharing it again here for good reason: it's really, really delicious. You can substitute nearly any type of white fish for the sole, and the sauce works perfectly well in other dishes without the shrimp/mushroom stuffing. The cheese topping might run counter to some deeply ingrained culinary sensibilities (Italians, I'm looking at you), but I recommend that you give it a try even if you're skeptical.

This one's one of my favorites and I hope you like it too! Recipe after the jump: