Fishing and Foraging

This weekend was a blur of activity as we finally got a weekend of amazing weather. It's the start of fishing and foraging season in the Palouse. The fish hadn't gotten the memo but all the lakes and ponds will be stocked for next weekend's big opening so the fishing will happen. Dandelions are out and about. I keep finding lots of yards filled with them. We've been picking from empty lots and public spaces. I managed to get several roots and a bucket of greens that we'll be eating tonight with lamb ribs (doesn't that sound yummy). The roots make great tea so I'll have enough for a few cups. I'll get more later. Right now I am focusing on flowers. I plan to make dandelion jelly. If all goes right I'll be making it with honey and sugar. My goal is to learn to can with honey and stop using white sugar all together. We went out to Rainbow Lake. The fish were not biting and our winter white skin was not liking the 80 degree sun (my arms got burnt and made me very sad - I knew I should have worn a long sleeve shirt). We were careful and all wore hats so the burns were limited to forearms (and my husband's neck where he had let a few buttons go open). My son did catch one nice little trout and it went into the freezer. We went on a search for mushrooms but none were found (not a single one, edible or not). We did find an oregon grape so I dug up two of the roots. We have oregon grape all over WSU but I didn't think they'd like us digging up the roots. They probably won't mind us taking the berries when they come (especially since there are a ton of plants). We did find something we thought were cattail shoots and then got to looking. They weren't cattails and I'm not sure what they are but we ate some as we picked and it didn't kill us. I do want to identify the plant before we eat what we have left. Most grasses are edible but I don't believe in taking the chance. We did find Arnica as we were heading home. The hills are covered in the plants but they were not easy to harvest. We got one and my mother is working on cleaning it up (except she might be allergic so I'll be cleaning it up and playing with it). No baking or even cooking happened this weekend. We did get a bountiful basket and added a box of tomatoes to the mix. I have 25 pounds of tomatoes that will be canned and dehydrated so we have some until our garden starts producing them. My mother bought a thing of culture so we can make our own cream cheese and maybe even some kimchee. Lots of great experiments coming soon. I'll be shifting this blog over to the new website in May and I am excited.

Fried Fish

My mother gave us some ling cod she caught last year. My husband has become an expert fish fryer so it was only right to eat the fish battered and fried. It was amazingly good. The batter keeps the fish incredibly moist and tender. We were out of mayonnaise to make tarter sauce (just mayo and relish) but I put together a decent sauce using a spoonful of cream cheese, milk to thin, splash of lemon juice and a spoonful of zucchini relish. The result was not exactly tartar sauce but a good compliment to the fish. Frying fish is easy. Wash the fish, pat dry, dip in the batter and lay in hot oil until crisp (turning once). Hubby doesn't use more than about an inch of oil for the frying. The batter is just as easy: Mix together - 1 cup flour 1/2 cup milk 1/2cup water 1/4cup baking powder 1 teaspoon salt We use bay seasoning for all our fishy foods (and many non-fishy foods) and last night he used whole wheat flour which didn't affect the texture or flavor at all. Well that might not be true because we thought this was the best fried fish he has ever made so maybe there's something to the whole wheat flour.

Tilapia in Caramel Sauce

My dad had some Tilapia and wanted to make it for us for dinner. The problem was he didn't know how to prepare it. I offered some suggestions but my dad and I are different sort of cooks. I like to just throw things together and recipes are ideas and guidelines (inspiration). For my dad a recipe offers a certain comfort that a dish will be good. He doesn't really like to substitute or vary from the recipe. He has dishes he has cooked most of my life that he still needs the recipes for. It's not a bad thing, it's just different.
So when I began offering suggestions to my dad, he wanted a recipe. We did a quick search and found Braised Tilapia in Caramel Sauce.

My dad had me cook the fish so I didn't quite follow the recipe (does that shock you?). First thing I did was make the sauce in a saucepan. I dipped the raw fish in the sauce and fried it on an oiled griddle (can use a frying pan). I brought the sauce back to boiling so that all the raw fish stuff would be cooked. I served the fish with the sauce drizzled over it. The reason I did this was I was concerned that the sauce would not be good and would ruin the fish. The sauce is great. It's not what I thought it would be but it's still a good sauce. My first sample of the sauce got me laughing because it tastes a lot like teriyaki sauce. It's a little more complicated than my basic teriyaki but it's worth the trouble.
I will share that my family really likes fish sauce in cooking. We're not quite to the point we can use it as a condiment. Fish sauce is always gluten free so it's great for those avoiding gluten. It does have a strong smell but I found that it's flavor is more mild than it feels like it should be. It tastes like soy sauce with a hint of fish but when serving it on fish you don't notice it at all.
Tilapia is a nice, firm white fish. It's often inexpensive (compared to other fish). It has a mild flavor, making it perfect for sauces. It's great just fried in butter with seasoned salt and pepper. Because it's firm, it fries beautifully and could easily be breaded and deep fried.

Honey Soy Nuggets

I got this recipe in my email the other day. The recipe is for chicken nuggets but last night I tried the recipe with Sea Bass and it was wonderful. As always, I altered the recipe slightly. This is a great meal for lunches since it was just as good cold as it was hot and it was easy to make a large amount.

Make a marinade:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
2 TB fructose
1/4 teas garlic powder
1 TB louisiana hot sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot to taste)
2 TB ginger (the recipe doesn't say ground or fresh - I used about 1 TB ginger juice instead)

Add cubed chicken or fish (the recipe calls for 3 chicken breast at 8 oz each, I used about 6 filets but I couldn't tell you what they weighed). I added the fish to all the marinade, the recipe has you marinate in 1/3 cup of the sauce and then brush the rest on while cooking.

With fish you don't have to marinate long because it just soaks up the sauce, chicken you want to marinate a couple of hours before cooking. Drain and pat the meat dry.
Put 3/4 cup of coconut flour in a bag. Add dried meat to the bag. Shake until all the meat is fully covered.
Bake at 400 degrees.
The fish took about 15 minutes to fully cook in my oven but may take less time in yours. Check a thick piece before removing from oven.
The recipe says for chicken - bake 15 minutes and then brush with glaze (marinade), cook an additional 15 minutes brushing with glaze often. When done transfer hot chicken to bowl and pour over remaining glaze and toss until fully covered.
Personally I can't see me doing this since the fish came out so flavorful. The coconut gives it a nice tropical taste and I fear that the glaze would take away the coconut flavor but who knows - I let you know when I try this with chicken.