Vacation Trout!

Ah! Vacation was great. Hiked, ran, fished, ate, slept, and vegged with my husband and two silly dogs. Yeah! Glad to be back, though. I was having some problems with the dry climate (dry hands, nose bleeds) and the pine trees were pollinating big time (caked up our car's windshield every day). Kevin and I caught eight trout while we were away and we froze them in water so that we can have a couple of meals off them over the next few weeks. We'll probably be frying them up in Katherine's famous corn meal batter (see below).

Egg Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free Fried Trout

Filleted Trout (scale free, please; you could also use talapia or catfish instead)
Corn Meal
1 Large Paper or Plastic plate
Salt
Pepper
Corn Oil
Small glass of water
Large Frying Pan

Since we freeze our fish in Ziploc bags filled with water, the un-freezing is the most time consuming but also the least labor intensive. Just rinse one side of the sink, add a drain stopper, pour in warm water from the tap, add the frozen fish, and about ten minutes later, POW! Defrosted fish!

Then it's time to take the fish and press them into the dry batter mix on the paper plate. Since the fish is wet, it'll hold most of the ingredients while it's frying. I generally eyeball the batter ingredients. I just make sure that I have enough corn meal on the paper plate to cover all sides of each of my fillet's (it's so annoying to have to wash my fishy hands to make more batter). I mix the pepper and salt with the corn meal on the plate before I cover the fish.

Next, I add about a teaspoon or two of corn oil to the pan, lay the fish in flat, and turn the heat to medium. I generally add a drop or two of water to the pan throughout the frying process to keep the fish from burning. The corn meal tends to soak up the oil underneath quickly and I'd rather add water than more oil to combat the burn. I usually flip the fish to cook on the other side when the majority of the fish has turned either white or grey (just push aside a little of the corn meal to test). If I wait until the entire fish is white, then it's harder to flip (crumbles).

Enjoy!