If you fish a lot you will end up with a good many fish in the freezer. One of our favorite ways of cooking them are to fry them. Not that healthy of a choice but I always have to fry a batch before I freeze them.
There are many ways to prepare them without frying them. Kind of like Bubba in Forest Gump, when he was talking about the ways to prepare shrimp. You have your fried fish, broiled fish, fish coubion, fish tacos, pan-seared, steamed fish, BBQ fish, cedar plank fish, and then all kind of topped fished, and of course raw fish loosely called sushi.
One of the best fish dishes I have had ever was a couple weeks ago when we were down in Venice, Louisiana staying at the Sportsman's Lodge. Richard Landry that runs the place is one helluva cook.
The Lodge
Blackened sheephead and speckled trout
Richard plating supper.
His Wicked Hollandaise sauce had crawfish tails in it.
Sportsman's Topped Blackened fish recipe:
Ingredients:
whole fish to blacken
seafood to add to hollendaise sauce
flaked mashed potatoes
Sausage or bacon
butter
heavy whipping cream
white wine
chopped trinity
crab boil
blackening seasoning
old bay seasoning (low salt Cajun seasoning)
Worcestershire sauce
Lots of pots and pans.
How I made our dish...........
First off, I poached a couple of sheephead fillets in water with crab boil to make imitation crab meat.
If using sausage, cut into little pieces and cook in pan. When it is about cooked add butter and trinity. Saute until veggies are clear and soft. I used cooked bacon so I did the trinity first then added the chopped cooked bacon.
In a pot make mashed potatoes for number of servings.
When sheephead is poached put in colander to cool.
Pour about a cup of wine in a pot and turn the burner on high and burn off the alcohol. When this is done set aside. (save the rest of wine for later)
In another pan start to blacken fish.
In another pot make the Hollandaise sauce according to directions. Then add the wine you set aside. When that is whisked in, start adding heavy whipping cream, about a half a pint. Add old bay seasoning, (or low salt Cajun seasoning) and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce.
Break up the poached sheephead, ( or add other seafood) to the Hollandaise sauce.
Add the sauteed trinity to the mashed potatoes.
It will kind of look like this on the stove! (makes my wife a nervous wreck!)
Start putting the mash potatoes on the plates. When the fish is done put it on the tricked out mashed potatoes. Top with the wicked Hollandaise sauce.
And when you plate it, do it like Richard did, not like mine. A little paprika on the sauce and some chopped onion tops would do wonders to the presentation.
Now go back to the wine I told you to save, pour yourself a glass and enjoy your meal!
This will be a great camp dish. Tips to make that go easier and faster:
1. Use precooked bacon or smoked sausage to make that part go faster.
2. Have one person outside blackening the fish on a propane burner.
3. Use cooked crawfish tails or lump crab meat in the Hollandaise sauce.
Those tips will cut the cook time in half.
Give it a try. It is fabulous!
Soft rides and hard strikes,
Mark