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.