2: Pan-fried 'Red Throat Emperor' with lemon garlic butter (Page 224, AFJ)

You may notice the recipe says "Sole" and not "Red Throat Emperor". I only know 5 kinds of fish: Salmon, Tuna, Sardine, Barramundi and the colourful kind. Every other fish is just fish.

Not knowing Brisbane very well yet, I had no idea where a fish shop was, so I ended up buying this fish from the supermarket and they didn't have sole fish. If my mum didn't make the fish or if I couldn't buy it cooked the closest I came to cooking/eating fish was the stuff I remove from a can. So I don't know why but when I saw that picture in the cookbook I just had to cook it! So now that I have admitted to not knowing how to buy fish or cook fish I can tell you about what actually happened.

Yesterday I thought I had done such a great job of buying all the ingredients I needed for the week, and it wasn't until I'd just gotten home from the gym and I was sweaty, tired and REALLY wanted to eat fish that I realised I didn't have any flour. I contemplated just making something else but in the end I went and bought the flour. So problem solved. Then there was a new problem...I had no idea what to serve this fish with, since Tessa Kiros decides to leave that up to the chef. So I decided on cous cous because that is something that I CAN cook and eat in case all else fails. It was lucky I chose the cous cous, because my other option was fries and if I'd tried to make fries. the damage done to the kitchen would be unimaginable since making the sauce and frying the fish and making the cous cous all at one time was enough of a challenge for me.

So in the end, yes I may have burnt the garlic in the butter lemon sauce. I didn't burn the fish, I burnt the garlic, and then I tried to cover up the burnt garlic with green parsley, and I'm not sure burnt garlic can be camouflaged. Don't judge a book by it's cover, because burnt garlic and all my fish tasted pretty good. It was nice ad flaky on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside with lots of butter and tangy lemon. Okay, maybe it doesn't beat my mum's fish but I ate it all up without complaint and for someone who rarely eats fish that isn't a bad sign. I'm not really sure that cous cous goes very well with fish though, so I will have to research what to serve as a side dish with fish because I don't like to eat fish on it's own.

Cooking time: 15 minutes
Taste: 3.5 stars
Ease: 2 stars (way too much multi-tasking)

Currently listening to "The way I am" by Ingrid Michaelson.