THE F-WORD: Swimming Into Fish Excellence

 

Hi folks, it's your best friend forever, the fearless Chef G.  Today, my foolish plan is to feed my face with fried fish.  Foolish in that my forays into fishdom have frequently failed.  I fear fish.  Fish are flavorful, but freakishly easy to f#(k-up.  Finding a fun way to favorably fix the flesh of a fish filet to fine flaky excellence is almost futile.  Furthermore, despite the fear factor, I feel I must face my fear and take my fish fetish a few steps forward--forgetting past failures and looking forward to my fishy future.

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Okay, I'm a little embarrassed at my attempt at alliteration, but I hope not to embarrass myself further in today's attempt to fry Minnesota's state fish without turning it into a greasy, over-cooked mess.  As I said in my introduction, fish is the most difficult meat to cook properly.

And, as I've written in the past, fish meat IS a meat, no matter what the fish-eating vegetarians say.

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While cruising the grocery store aisles yesterday for something interesting to eat, I pushed my cart past the seafood section.  I think I still had visions of preparing another honey-soy salmon like the one featured in my last post.  "No, it's too soon for that," I thought.  Then I passed up the shrimp, crab legs, and scallops.  I had some kind of white fish in mind.  The talapia looked pretty good--so did the catfish--but there is no way I could pass up the fresh walleye.  I've never prepared Minnesota's state fish before; I've only eaten it in restaurants.

Okay, I'm fully aware that the walleye fillet I purchased wasn't caught by a guy with a fishing pole, from a boat, on a pristine Minnesota lake.  I was equally confident that it wasn't harvested in the mercury infested waters of the Mississippi River.  More likely, it was raised on some kind of filthy walleye farm in Canada.

Even so, I looked forward to bringing it home and trying to cook it without messing it up.  I debated baking vs. frying, but then I came to my senses.  No self-respecting walleye fisherman bakes his catch.  OH no, he seasons it, dips it in egg or milk, then coats it in Shore Lunch or some other brand of prepared breading, and fries it in oil at his lakeside campsite.  (I've tried fishing in the past.  I don't have the patience for it, nor the killer instinct.  As with all meats, I let somebody else do the dirty work.) 

In my case, I mixed up my own breading with a mixture of flour, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, black pepper, and plenty of salt.  MMMMmmm.

I cut the fillets into smaller pieces so they'd fit in the pan and tossed them in some pre-heated olive oil. I watched them sizzle this time.  I think part of my previous fish cooking failures were a result of walking away and kind of forgetting about them.  After five minutes of sizzling, I turned them over and fried them for another five minutes.  MMMMmmmm!

         

Minnesota's Official State Fish since 1965

You can't see my mouth in this photo, but I'm drooling.

I did it!  Perfectly flaky fried fish meat!

I forgot to mention the delicious pasta salad I made to accompany my fish dish.  It's just a mix of Farfalle (bowtie pasta), broccoli, cauliflower, onion, carrot, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, pepperoni, grated parmesan cheese, and Italian dressing.  I gave another seal of approval to the salad, but I didn't feel the need to make a video of that one.  A photo is sufficient.

HIP HIP HOORAY! HUZZAH! CHEERS! OLE'!: LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!

Hi folks, Chef G. here for a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very special edition of my wonderful cooking blog.  As the title suggests, today's post is a major milestone for the Chef G. Cooking Channel.  Incredibly, I've reached episode #40 and the network hasn't even suggested cancelling my program yet.

As usual I'm ready to once again fulfill all of your reading and cooking dreams, but I'll be doing it a little differently this time.

That's because I sent out surveys to my many, MANY followers from all over the world.  I asked them to vote for which one of the following recipes they most wanted to see for this auspicious occasion:

1)  Honey and soy glazed salmon

2)  Stir fried broccoli

3)  Corned beef & hash

4)  Hearty beef & barley soup

5)  Louisiana Gumbo

All nine of my rabid fans exclaimed, "ALL OF THEM!!!"

I aim to please, but I don't have enough time in my busy schedule to write up FIVE detailed recipes in one day.  Plus, I'm a little lazy.  Therefore, I'm going to be using the art of photography instead of the arts of chefery and bloggery and recipe-ery.  And I gotta tell ya, you are in store for some pretty amazing food photography.  GET READY!

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Honey& Soy Glazed Salmon fresh out of the oven.  DELICIOUS

Served with Minnesota wild rice, it's even DELICIOUSER.

Stir Fried Broccoli.  I was going to add it to another dish, but I couldn't wait.  So I ate it all by itself.

I planned to cook a corned beef brisket for Mrs. Chef G. and me on St. Patrick's Day, but we got a last minute invitation from our next door neighbors to join them for--you guessed it--an Irish corned beef and cabbage dinner.  We ate our own corned beef brisket a couple weeks later.  The next day, I made corned beef hash from the leftovers.  DELICIOUS!

The best corned beef hash ever made by anyone!

'Twas even better with a dollop of perfectly cooked scrambled eggs and a slice of cheese.

One day I made a beef pot roast.  It was delicious, of course.  The next day, I put the fat, the juices, the bone, and some onions, garlic, carrots & celery in a soup pot with water and boiled it.  Four hours later, I strained all the solids out of the beautiful broth.  The day after that, I sauted some fresh carrots, celery & onions in butter, then added the beautiful broth and shredded leftover beef.  After that simmered for an hour, I added barley and let it simmer another hour.  With five minutes left to go, I added frozen peas.

DELICIOUS beyond belief.

Somewhere along the line I discovered my new favorite cheese.  When I bought it, I thought the label said "Le Gregyere" which would have been appropriately cheesy.

Cajun food is one of my favorite ethnic styles.  I featured a jambalaya back in the early days of the Chef G. Cooking Channel, but I've never ventured into the world of Gumbo.  I'm glad I tried it out on this particular day.

Ladle it onto some perfectly cooked rice, and you would not believe the DELICIOUSNESS.

BONUS COVERAGE: 

Once in a while, it's nice to go to a restaurant--even when your own cooking is so much better.  I just thought I'd share a couple memorable restaurant experiences to help celebrate my 40th episode.

Every five or ten years, some old college buddies and I get together for lunch at The Monte Carlo--a retro cool restaurant in Minneapolis.  Look how much more hair those other guys have on their heads than Chef G. has on his head.

Every once in a while, Mrs. Chef G. and I go out for a restaurant meal.  Recently, we tried a new Thai place in town.  She really liked whatever this was called.

  

I liked my Mussels Karapoa better.  I MUST bribe the restaurant owners for their recipe.

Thank you, everyone, for your incredible support through 40 wonderful episodes.  That's what keeps me publishing this stuff.