Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I cobbled this out of a basic recipe for freshwater panfish that I found in an American fish cookbook. The original was quite unimaginative so I decided it needed help. This is better . . . a lot better!
Improved Fish Chowder
4 slices extra thick bacon, cut up
1 lb. baby potatoes, whole
½ large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups stock
½ cup chopped baby carrots
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Juice of ½ fresh lime
½ tsp dried dill
1/8 tsp. anise seed
1cup whipping cream (or canned coconut milk!)
1 lb. white fish fillets, cubed
in a 3-quart saucepan or kettle, cook bacon until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove bacon from pan and sauté onion in bacon fat until soft. Sauté garlic 15 seconds and add stock, potatoes, carrots, cilantro, lime juice, dill and anise seed. Bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes. Blend in cream, add catfish cubes and simmer 3 minutes until the fish is cooked. Serve with hot French bread and green salad. Either beer or a Riesling would go good with this.
Most of what I cook is good ol' southern food, and there's really no recipe for most of it.
Southern cooking is done by intuition, feel, and experience.
OFFICIAL TRANSLATION: I make my kids eat cereal, and egg-salad sandwiches from the QUICKIE MART, if there's anything left after I get my beer and cigarettes.
Most of what I cook is good ol' southern food, and there's really no recipe for most of it.
Southern cooking is done by intuition, feel, and experience.
Do you fry your fish with cornmeal or flour?
Stir Fried Chicken with Vegetables.
This is more performance art than food, but it tastes good.
Seat your guest at the kitchen island on a barstool and pour white wine in a chilled wine stem. She is the audience, so keep her down stage.
The first step is to make a big show of washing your hands, all the way up to the elbow, just like the doctors on Mash.
Prepare the vegetables ahead of time.
One large onion, chopped.
One green bell pepper, chopped
One red bell pepper, chopped,
One cup of broccoli flowers, cut from the stems
All of these should be in the fridge, in covered bowls.
Put your Wok on the burner, but don't turn on the heat, yet.
Put a saucepan with water on the burner and start it to boil.
Take one whole chicken from the fridge and plop him down on the cutting board and debone it completely. It's best to practice this a few times. It has to look effortless. This is theater and you have to play to the audience.
All the bones go into the boiling water in the sauce pan to make chicken stock.
Your guest will ask how you learned to do this. Don't tell her about Food Network cooking shows. You watched your mother when you were young. Stick with that story and elaborate it as much as you like.
Cut the chicken into thumb sized piece and set aside in a bowl. Check your guests wine and refill her glass.
Turn the heat under the wok to high. Rotate the wok to heat it evenly and pour in a tablespoon of peanut oil. Coat the wok evenly and dump in the chicken. This makes a spectacular sound and a cloud of steam. Stir the chicken briskly until each piece is slightly brown. Don't cook completely at this step.
Scoop out the chicken and set it aside in a clean bowl. Do not reuse the original bowl. Are you trying to kill her with Salmonella?
Dump in the vegetables and stir to make sure they don't stick. Pour in some of the boiling chicken stock from the sauce pan, just a splash. Put a cover on the wok and reduce the heat. Let the vegetables steam for 5 minutes and check on your guest.
She will need more wine at this point. If one shoe is dangling from her toe, it is a good sign.
Mix 1 tablespoon of potato starch with 2 tablespoons of cold water and make a smooth paste.
Add the cooked chicken to the vegetables and season with whatever you like. Salt and pepper are fine if that's all you like. I use Tony Chachere's. http://shop.tonychachere.com/seasonings-c-8030.html It used to be a local product, but now its available around the world.
Pour enough chicken stock to cover the vegetables and stir until it boils. Pour in the potato starch paste and stir until thick. Take off the heat immediately.
This should be served over steamed rice or pasta, with more white wine.
I'm a deep-south cook, and like Cloudy indicated, we cook by intuition. As I was coming up, my Mama always said, "You put in a dash of this and a dab of that." Measurements just don't exist. We create food to taste good and express love, and that's pretty much all cooked from the heart rather than the head. I suppose I could try to explain making cornbread, but honestly, I have no idea what the measurements are. I just do it until things mesh together properly.
Flour.
.
Yum from start to finish.
More wine, please?
I'm a deep-south cook, and like Cloudy indicated, we cook by intuition. As I was coming up, my Mama always said, "You put in a dash of this and a dab of that." Measurements just don't exist. We create food to taste good and express love, and that's pretty much all cooked from the heart rather than the head. I suppose I could try to explain making cornbread, but honestly, I have no idea what the measurements are. I just do it until things mesh together properly.
The flour or cornmeal is a regional thing, even across the south. Somewhere between Gulfport, Ms and Mobile, Al, the cornmeal line is crossed and flour is used. I once spent a week fishing on Mobile Bay. I had an ice chest full of fish and was surprised my ready made seasoned cornmeal fish fry was not on the store shelves. I bought cornmeal, flour and of course, Tony Chachere's and made my own. My Alabama relatives were impressed. They had never tasted good cornmeal breading.
For cornmeal breading, the fish should be dipped in milk and a beaten egg to make it sticky, then rolled in the cornmeal until it's dry on the outside. Drop it in the oil before the milk soaks through.
Flour can be used for wet batter frying.
That looks cool, Ogg. What's a sandwich dish?
Do you fry your fish with cornmeal or flour?
A round tin about one inch deep. Two are used to make a Victoria Sandwich Cake.
Og