Favorite Recipes

If you're like me, you are always looking for a new fish recipe to try when the stomach starts growlin'. Well, here is a trio of favorites from the Deep South that, if you haven't tried them yet, are sure to make your hit list too:

For king mackerel, cobia (lemonfish), or even shark, there is hardly a better preparation than to Charcoal broil the catch. Mr. Carroll Church of Houston, Texas offers the following recipe:

Ingredients:
six fish steaks 1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon pepper juice of 1 large lemon
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce

Skin the fish and cut it into steaks about an inch to an inch and a half in thickness. Then prepare a basting sauce of butter, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, lemon juice, garlic powder and soy sauce. Broil slowly over a low charcoal fire, brushing often with the marinade. Serve with wild rice and snow peas for a healthy and tasteful meal.

Who should know better about cooking up a redfish than someone from Louisiana? Collin Smith of Golden Meadow, Louisiana has this interesting treatment of trout or redfish fillets. Break out the black skillet, and let's get to cookin':

Ingredients:
1 pound fish fillets 2 cups peeled shrimp
5 medium chopped onions 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 stick margarine 2 tsp. ketchup
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard 2 tsp. Louisiana hot sauce
3 cloves chopped garlic 2 cups hot water
Nature's Seasons to taste Salt to taste
Parsley flakes

Season fish fillets and raw shrimp with Nature's Seasons. Then pan fry fillets in margarine for 7 to 10 minutes. Saute onions in oil and margarine until they are lightly brown. Add 1/4 cup water and cook for 10 minutes. Add ketchup (or catsup, if you prefer), simmer and stir for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in shrimp, mustard, hot sauce, garlic and hot water. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes. Season with salt. Add fish on top of shrimp mixture; cover and cook for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley flakes and serve with smothered potatoes. 'mm good!

Finally, there's a good ol' fashioned fried fish recipe; and Joseph E. Flash of Grand Chenier, Louisiana has a recipe called "Fried Fish Fillets Supreme" that will whet anyone's appetite:

Ingredients:
1 egg 1 cup milk
1 cup flour 1 cup cornmeal
salt and red pepper to taste
1 pound of fresh fish fillets
corn oil

Beat egg in bowl; add milk and mix. Place flour in a shallow dish and cornmeal in another. Season both with salt and pepper. Roll fillets in flour; dip in egg mixture and roll in cornmeal. Fry in deep corn oil until golden brown. Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler! This goes well with hush puppies and fries.

These wonderful recipes are excerpted from three popular southern cookbooks - Louisiana Tiger Bait, Selected Recipes from L.S.U. Alums...; CAJUN's JOY, Cookin' and Eatin' by Mrs. Alzina Toups; and the Houston Junior League Cook Book. All are available at your better local bookstores...

If you're really in a hurry and need to cook up a mess of seafood for a big group of hungry folks, you can always buy yourself some medium, heads-on shrimp, new potatoes and corn on the cob.  Bring a big, BIG pot of water to a boil and add a bag of Zatarain's Shrimp and Crab Boil as well as a quarter cup of the liquid Zatarain's and lots of salt. 

Boil the potatoes and corn until they're nearly done and then add the shrimp at the end.  Drain the water and dump directly onto newspaper at the table.   Nicely complemented with a cold beer!