In the last two weeks I have made Sole or Tilapia in a Meuniere sauce at least 6 times and it has never come out like I want. I have great success with this recipe from a flavor standpoint but my biggest problem comes when I try to cook the fish without its floured dredge and lots of oil to fry in. In the original format it comes out beautifully. It fries to a golden brown and does not stick. However, I don’t want to fry my fish every time I eat it. Part of the reason I eat fish is that it is a light meal and all this butter, oil and frying does not make the dish light. Unfortunately, every time I try to cook the fish simply in a skillet with very little fat I get a delicious sauce on top of flaked fish that has fallen apart in the pan.

In one of my attempts I decided to use an all natural olive oil spray to coat the pan. This oil spray is just olive oil with no additives. I was trying to stay away from chemicals and Pam along with its copy cat sprays all have additives. I like using olive oil in my cooking as it’s good for you and delicious so this seemed like a wonderful way to go. Unfortunately I was wrong, oh so very, very wrong. It started out wonderfully, the olive oil sprays beautifully and coats the pan perfectly. Sadly that’s where the positive ends. I added the fish and it stuck immediately. I let it cook for a bit in the hopes that as it cooked it would unstick itself, no such luck. In the end I had to scrape it up off the bottom of the nonstick pan. Thinking maybe it was just the fish and that the spray was not to blame, I decided to try it while making eggs in place of the Pam I usually use. It failed miserably. It was worse than the olive oil I use on occasion when frying my eggs. I figured maybe it was not meant as a nonstick cooking spray but as a salad spray for after cooking (can you tell I am trying to give this thing a fair shake?) but, alas, it lacks and real flavor. At the end of the day, I would buy regular olive oil, extra virgin, and not waste my money on this again.

I will keep experimenting and will post the Meuniere recipe as soon as I get it right, that is, if I EVER get it right!