Ina Garten's Special Ingredient For The Best Roasted Fish Ever

It's a common thought among foodies that no other TV chef personality can do easy, elegant and delicious tasting recipes like Ina Garten. The Food Network star known for her 28-season-and-counting cooking show, "The Barefoot Contessa," frequently sprinkles the flavors and culinary techniques of French cuisine throughout her dishes. One simple French ingredient that you can almost always bet you'll find in a recipe of Garten's takes a basic dish from zero to hero — Dijon mustard.

Throughout the Barefoot Contessa's time on-air, I has featured Dijon mustard in over a dozen recipes ranging from her Sunday rib roast to her zesty mac n' cheese. The magic of Dijon mustard (that Garten has clearly caught on to) is how it alone can do the job of what would usually require upwards of three different ingredients within a recipe to accomplish. 

The French mustard provides acidity, brightness, creaminess and it even acts as a tenderizer for proteins or an emulsifier in vinaigrettes. Garten really hit the nail on the head by utilizing dijon in her mustard-roasted fish recipe featured on The Barefoot Contessa website. The mustard works so well here that it should have more appropriately been named, "Ina Garten's gift to fish." 

Taking into account all of what Dijon mustard can offer and applying it to a delicate protein like fish is a total chef's kiss. In her recipe, she uses not only one varietal of Dijon mustard, but two — a classic Dijon (smooth, creamy, slightly spicy) and a whole grain Dijon mustard (course, crunchy, tangy). She explained in recipe's episode that reason for two different Dijon varieties is because one has more flavor (classic Dijon) and one adds texture and color to the dish (whole grain Dijon). She then combines both of the mustards with crème fraîche, shallots, capers, salt and pepper to simply pour over the fish before it's roasted in the oven. While roasting, the Dijon mustard mixture melts into and around the fish not only making it fork-tender but also creating a warm sauce. 

A dish like this takes less than thirty-minutes to have on the table especially since minimal ingredients were needed thanks to Dijon mustard checking all the boxes. As Garten would famously say for a crowd-pleasing fish dish like this, "How easy is that?!"