There's more than one way to clean a mess of crappie and more ways than frying to cook up a fish-dinner feast.
Baked fish is an easy and healthy way to whip up a delicious platter of golden-brown fish with half the hassle.
With baked fish, there's no oil to mess with and no greasy fryer to clean. Deep frying is normally done outdoors. For baked fish, heat up the oven and get ready to chow down, even when it's nasty outside.
Fishing has been good as gold at Beaver and all our lakes all spring and most of the summer. Anglers are no doubt enjoying the bounty now that fishing has slowed. Summer's dog days are here, lounging around like a lazy hound.
Here at the shack-ri-la, we're baking way more fish than frying. Last summer we bragged on the ease and five-star flavor of baked fish with mayo. We're back in the kitchen today with another tasty recipe, baked parmesan fish.
Better fix plenty. It comes out of the oven golden brown, crispy and so tasty your gang is going to love it.
Here's what you'll need. Start with a half dozen or so crappie or catfish filets (about a pound) or any fish you like. Store-bought tilapia or catfish filets work fine.
Next, crack one egg into a bowl. Add two tablespoons of milk and stir. In another bowl, combine one-third cup grated parmesan cheese, two tablespoons flour, one-half teaspoon paprika, one-quarter teaspoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon pepper.
Dip each filet in the egg mixture and let the excess drip off. Then roll the filet in the breading mixture to coat the fish. Place the filets on a lightly oiled or buttered baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
That's all there is to it. Baked parmesan fish is a perfect recipe to get the kiddos in on the cooking. They'll have a ball mixing up the ingredients and feel proud to help put supper on the family table.
Recipes are made to be messed with. One little tweak might be to substitute bread crumbs for the flour or maybe use one tablespoon of flour and one of bread crumbs.
Another fun deal for the kids is to put all the breading ingredients into a brown paper bag or plastic zipper bag. Young chefs can drop the moistened fish into the bag and shake, shake, shake it to bread the filets, maybe while they dance to their favorite music.
To make cleanup even easier, line the baking sheet with aluminum foil. When dinner is done, toss the foil and the baking pan needs only a light washing.
Baked fish is delicious, but you can bet a bottle of canola oil we'll fire up the Fry Daddy now and then here at the shack-ri-la. There's nothing like a Saturday night fish fry with friends and neighbors. For a quick and easy fish dinner, we'll turn on the oven instead.
Sports on 07/31/2018