Awesome Baked Haddock

My husband, hereafter referred to as Picky Library Man, refused for the first 8 or so years that we knew each other to eat anything that once lived in water. I tried to tell him that it's yummy, a lot of it is very mild, it's healthy, and he was kind of being a pussy ... No dice. Then he went and saw Hot Young Asian Doctor, who said he should eat more fish to help out his HDL, and magically he was open to seafood. Hmph. So, I'm introducing him gently, with a breaded baked haddock. This is a great fish for those pain-in-the-ass loved ones who don't know how good Flipper would taste if they just gave it a shot.

The lineup:

That's haddock fillets, parmesean cheese, bread crumbs, rosemary, thyme, dill weed, lemon pepper, black pepper, egg, butter, and olive oil (EVOO is not crucial in this recipe, so if you have crappy olive oil to use up, this is a good time to do it!) Not pictured: salt. I know, I'm a big screw-up.

First, heat up your oven to 350F and stick an empty 9x13 baking dish inside. Well, really, it can be any size you want it to be, I suppose, as long as it holds all the fish. But yeah, go ahead and toss it in there. You'll understand when you're older.

Put some bread crumbs on a plate. If you're a tree-killer like me, use a paper plate.

Next, add some parmesean cheese -- there are no rules about how much, but I think this is around 1/4 cup.

I happened to have some fresh rosemary and thyme laying around, but you can either use dried or skip this step if you want. Anyway, if you do have fresh, chop them up. If Picky Library Man is behind on the dishes, you might have to chop on a plate instead of a cutting board.

Anyway, let the herbs get cozy with the bread crumbs, along with some dill weed, lemon pepper, and dashes of black pepper and salt. I'm not much on measuring (in case you're blind and haven't noticed), so here are some pictures:

Then mix it the hell up! Make sure to crush all those little Parm clumps.

Now crack a dead chicken embryo in a bowl and deface it up with a fork or whisk.

Yank the pan out of the oven (don't forget the potholders or your hands will look like the bad half of The Man Without a Face), and add in about a Tbsp each of olive oil and butter. See how the butter melts so easily? That's why you heated up the pan, yo.

Spread the love. Mmmmmm .... butter.

Next, coat the fish with the egg. If you don't have egg or you want to make this healthier, you can use egg beaters or milk. Make sure to get egg on both sides.

Now, lay the fish on the plate o' breading. Get all four sides by sprinkling more on the top and sides and patting it. I don't know why my hand looks like that.

Next, put it into the buttery love pan and pop 'er in the oven. (I know it looks like there's dirt on that dish towel, but it's a trick of the camera. No, really.)

At this point you can either a) clean up the mess you've made so far, or b) pour yourself a glass of wine and leave the mess for your own Picky Library Man. Regardless, after about 10 minutes the fish should be ready to flip. I couldn't get a good picture before I flipped it, but this is what it should look like after:

Yummmmmy. You can flip anytime after it starts looking brown, but I like those little burny edges. Anyway, after you flip it's pretty quick work -- after 4-5 more minutes it'll be done.

Remember to make the plate look pretty - Martha might be watching!