Different ways to cook fish

How does everyone cook their fish other than your standard fish fry? Any interesting recipes?

Personally I’m a big fan of fish fajitas, po boy sandwiches, chowders, and pickled fish. 

If anyone wants the recipes I use let me know, and I’ll share. 

Curry, I have made thick red or yellow curry for serving on top of rice with several types of fish but Bass are my favorite because they hold up well. You also can make a curry based soup that is low carb if that is important to you diet. I stay away from Channel cats as they seem to get rubbery when boiled. (red curry is usually hot where as yellow is milder)   

I love fried fish, but my wife wants a little less oil in her meals, and it doesn't hurt me to do the same.  What I do is take a glass dish with some olive oil on the bottom, ( I usually use olive oil with chipotle seasoning to give it just a tiny bit of heat), about 2 tablespoons in a 9X13 pan, shake some good old Shore Lunch, Cornmeal Recipe, in a bag with the panfish fillets, no milk or egg just wet fillets, and put them in the glass dish.  One layer only.  Cook for 40 minutes at 425, and then, important now, broil them for maybe 5 minutes of so, to dry out and slightly brown the top of the fish.  The wife likes em like that.  I add Old Bay seasoning and some black pepper on them on my plate.  Tarter sauce, etc. is optional.  

 And thanks everyone for the other GREAT ideas on changing things up a bit in the kitchen!  I'll try the walleye wings if I ever catch a walleye.

I had walleye wings for the first time this past winter on our annual trip. First time i've heard of zippering a walleye too. My grandpa always talked about the wings but since I don't target walleye, never had them. Definitely worth keeping the wings since it's a portion of the fish that doesn't normally get eaten. Kind of fun to eat them and they were pretty good too. Cheeks on the other hand, probably the only piece of meat that would make me consider targetting walleye! Delicious.

Bugle, very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I’ve cleaned countless walleyes in my lifetime but have never seen this. I’m headed to Bago this evening, and if all goes well I intend to try this. Will report back if I do. 

Not the cheeks.

The Wings

Take northern fillets cut them into small strips, boil in 7up for a few minutes, dip in melted butter and eat just like lobster.  I was skeptical at first but I tried it and everyone really liked it. 

Bugle:

Are you talking about the walleye cheeks?

Has anyone tried walleye wings?  I learned about them after the fact last week while we were in Canada so I didn't cut them out of the ones we caught there but am planning on trying it next time I get out on Winnebago or Green Bay.

YouTube has videos of how to cut out the "wings" if interested.

I guess that's one way to get your calcium.

He must be a picky eater, the Hmong groups that would fish the river back in my hometown had a grinder that they brought along and would grind the fish whole and cook up fish patties as they caught them; bone, guts and all.

I got invited to a Hmong celebration a couple of months ago. They had Fish Head Soup on the table.  The broth was excellent but I just couldn't bring myself to eat a head.  I asked my Hmong friend how you even go about eating a fish head.  He replied, "you eat anything that's not bone".

Maybe some other time.

This is one of the best ways I’ve had fish, just replace panfish or walleye filets for flounder. The way I’ve cooked it is in a cast iron skillet with a layer of filets, stuffing and another layer of filets. Then grill it for around 25 minutes at around 400*. There are a lot of variations of this recipe, look around and find one that is more to your liking. I at times replace the crab meat with crawfish tails or shrimp that are finely chopped. 

Crab stuffed flounder recipe

Another way is to follow Paul Prudhommes blackened recipe. I’ve done it with an iron skillet on a grill but it also works equally or possibly better directly on the grill grate itself. If doing it directly on a grate, be sure it is hot, clean and oiled. This is a great method for making fish tacos or a grilled fish sandwich. Any kind of Cajun, creole, taco or southwest style seasoning works, not hard to make the seasoning blend yourself either.

Blackened fish

Another way is to simply sauté filets in bacon grease or use the blackening method above and serve over a BLT salad. Lettuce with homemade croutons, grape tomatoes, bacon with a mayo based dressing.

Deep fried fish is way overrated. 

I've been making fish balls lately, properly prepared they are firm and will bounce. It takes a bit of prep work but are easy to cook- no breading just fish salt and pepper. White bass are perfect for them, mixed it up last time and bacon wrapped a few. I believe they would be excellent with hot sauce- buffalo balls.

Yes, catfish.  It was imported from somewhere so it wasn't channel or flathead.  It was excellent.

I read years ago that the former owner of the lodge got into some hot water for serving walleye amongst a few other charges.  My guess is that they're not leaving anything open to scrutiny when it comes to serving fish.

We got shore lunch a few days while we were there so it's all good.  I got a taste of Canada.