Favourite fish recipe

[Odyssey]

More fish recipes from Sigurd Olsen...from The Lonely Land (1961) a) fried fish, b)fish cakes, c) smoked fish
"Omond's came in first, a pike over twenty pounds, then within minutes Elliot's, and finally Tony's. We laid the three fish on the rocks. They totalled sixty odd pounds...
What beautiful fillets they were-golden yellow in color, about twenty-four inches in length, four inches wide and an inch and a half in thickness.
a) The frying pan was waiting and after rolling two of the steaks in flour, I dropped them into the hot bacon fat. Elliot mixed a batch of mashed potatoes, and we ate until we could hold no more.
b) What was left of the fried fillets, I stirred up enough fish cakes for breakfast, using the old recipe of fish, mashed potatoes, dehydrated onions, a dash of flour to hold them together, and some powdered egg for color and flavoring...
c) Then I went to work on the remaining four fillets, cleaned them thoroughly, rubbed them down with salt, pepper, and bacon fat, and laid them over a grate over a smoldering fire made of peeled sticks from an old beaver house. No spruce or pine went into the smoking fire, only the cleanest of birch or aspen, thoroughly dried and cured. The fillets quickly turned to a golden brown and I tended them carefully, knowing that for days ahead we would have something other than sausage and cheese for lunch."

 

[Odyssey]

And earlier in The Lonely Land...
"Here was a chowder as it is made in the North and as the Finns and Scandinavians have made it for centuries in Europe. No tomatoes, pork or bacon, no fancy ingredients. Just fish, potatoes, and onions, with a little something extra for good luck."
I wonder what the secret ingredient for good luck is?

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I wonder what the secret ingredient for good luck is?

How much proof do you want?

 

[ppine]

I like to catch salmon and cook them over red alder. Finish with some garlic powder of fresh garlic, red pepper flakes and at the end a little real maple syrup. Canadians and Alaskans eat salmon this way a lot.

In the North Woods I like walleye or small mouth bass cooked in a pan. You can add whatever you want. I like lemon and capers. Or tomatoes, onions and garlic.

I have eaten so many trout, I mostly smoke them over red alder or fruitwood after brining in salt and brown sugar overnight.

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

What was left of the fried fillets, I stirred up enough fish cakes for breakfast, using the old recipe of fish, mashed potatoes, dehydrated onions, a dash of flour to hold them together, and some powdered egg for color and flavoring...

Sweet baby Jesus that sounds good.

 

[ppine]

After eating dehydrated food for around 3 days, the need to catch some fresh fish becomes a powerful motivation. I caught a big small mouth bass in the BWCA. We had no refrigeration so I just cleaned it and hung it up in the shade. It seemed to age perfectly in a couple of hours like a deer or a cow would in a week. Some of the best fish I have ever had.

 

[jdeerfoot]

And earlier in The Lonely Land...
"Here was a chowder as it is made in the North and as the Finns and Scandinavians have made it for centuries in Europe. No tomatoes, pork or bacon, no fancy ingredients. Just fish, potatoes, and onions, with a little something extra for good luck."
I wonder what the secret ingredient for good luck is?

Sounds like a Scandinavian fish boil. As I recall the only ingredients were fish, potatoes, onions and carrots with salt added during the boil. Maybe the secret was the boil over at the end of the cooking process when fuel oil or kerosene was thrown on the fire to boil off the fish oil.

It has been said that this last step was really added to entertain the tourists.

 

[Seeker]

I don't catch or eat a lot of fish, but one of my favorite ways to cook a trout is in foil. You need a trout, a lemon, an onion, an apple, and some seasoned salt, and a piece of foil. (I prefer the thickest kind, because you can burn it in the fire without it falling to bits, all the stuck food parts burn off, and then you don't have to pick all the bits out to carry out, as it stays intact. Just easier to clean up.)

Peel/cut the lemon rind off, mostly, and slice it thin. Dice the onion and the Apple. Apple is fine with the peel. Lay your foil out and make a bed of half the diced/sliced ingredients. I do onion, then apple, then lemon closest to the fish. Lay the fillets on top, sprinkling a little seasoned salt (or whatever you want) on both sides as you do so, then cover with the rest of the lemon, apple, and onions. Fold the foil and roll the two long edges shut (not sure it matters which way you put the seam... i do it on the edge vs the top/bottom, just because) and roll up the outside edges to seal everything in. You should now have a flat packet. Sit it on hot coals for about 5 minutes/side and check that it's done (pink flaky meat for trout/salmon, white if something else). If it's still sorta clear-looking, give it another minute or two per side. You can also throw it over a grill/grate if you have one, or a couple green sticks if not. This is not complicated and there is infinite variety to what else you can add to your foil packet based on your own likes.