ROUGHING IT PART II
Dry… Wet… Dry
One of the most enjoyable parts of a Canadian fishing trip is the classic “Shore Lunch”. The challenge of finding a suitable
location on the lake and creating a good cooking fire is half the fun. A shore lunch typically is fresh fish breaded and deep fried in oil with canned beans, potato salad or some other easy to transport and eat accompaniment. On our fly-in trip we certainly had the traditional shore lunch, but we also decided to (as Emeril says) “kick it up a notch” with some new twists. What follows are two variations on a Canadian shore lunch. The first is a refinement on the previous years improvisation after forgetting the oil and the second is a Cajun twist on the classic fried fish.
Poached Walleye with Lyonnaise Potatoes and Baked Beans
and of course, Beer.
If you are trying to cut back on the fat and calories (or you just plain forgot to bring the oil to deep fry the fish), give this a try. Instead of filling that big ol’ fry pan up with grease try a bottle of white wine, garlic, Northwoods seasoning (see previous Roughing it post), onion, dill and sliced lemon. Bring this mixture close to a boil and add the fresh filets. Poach until the fish has turned opaque.
The potatoes are pretty easy. Add enough oil to cover the bottom of the frying pan. Add chopped onions and shredded potatoes. Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Northwoods seasoning. Fry the potatoes until soft and brown on the edges.
The baked beans take a lot of preparation. Open the can, keeping the lid attached. Place next to the fire to heat. Keep the lid closed to prevent ashes from the fire from getting into the beans.
When everything is ready, plate and serve with a very cold Sleeman Brewing Co. Amber Beer.
Walleye Po-Boys with Cole Slaw and of course, Beer
For this lunch, we wanted to try a new twist on the fried fish shore lunch. The night before we baked 3 loaves of Pillsbury Crusty French Bread Dough (in a tube). This stuff is easy to transport and is actually quite good as a sandwich bun. We cut the loaves in half to make 6 sandwich buns. These were split and wrapped in foil in advance.
The walleye filets were cut into 1-11/2 inch pieces. It is important to remember whenever frying fish with a coating of breading you should use the “Dry, Wet, Dry” technique. We usually do this assembly line fashion with large zip lock bags full of the dry and wet ingredients. The fish pieces were patted dry with paper towels and then lightly coated in a Cajun seasoned flour. Next they were dipped in an egg beaters egg wash. (The 16 oz. cartons of egg beaters survive a hard morning of fishing in a bumpy boat better then real eggs) After the egg wash we dredged the fish pieces in a blend of flower, crushed pretzels and Cajun spices. The pieces are then fried in peanut oil until golden brown. The pretzels provide a nice crunch to the breading.
The Cole Slaw was a simple bag of slaw mix with 1 cup of mayonnaise, salt, pepper and 3 tbs horseradish mustard mixed together. We decided to make our own tarter sauce (because we forgot to bring some with) by mixing 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 diced dill pickle, pepper and horseradish mustard. The cocktail sauce was a blend of ketchup and ground horseradish in equal amounts.
After the fish was fried and drained the walleye po-boys were made with fish, slaw, tarter and/or cocktail sauce on the fresh bread rolls. A side of Cole Slaw and a cold beer. This is a simple spin on the traditional shore lunch that was a big hit. We will definitely do this again.
Does this bring back memories expect where is the Dinty Moore and who ever heard of pouched fish at a shore lunch. Thank for the bean receipe, I will have to try it at my next function.
Boy, you love your food. I used to work in Canada as a guide… so I spent a lot of time cooking or teaching how to cook on the trail.