Fishing Opener

              Unable to get photos on here for now, I'll go without and add them at a later date.
              Another fishing opener come and gone. 66 so far. They are not what they used to be, so full of anticipation and excitement you couldn't sleep,like during deer or duck opener, all about getting up early at 4 or 5 AM with some family and friends and you're getting geared up and going over plans, still groggy from drinking one too many the night before when you were making plans, developing strategy and getting your gear ready. Toast with peanut butter and coffee and a smoke and you come around  and are excited again.
           
            Soak your fish in milk for 20 minutes before you cook it to make it clean and fresh tasting.   .

Guacamole with Fresh Garden Vegetables

                 Avocado, cherry or grape tomatoes, green onions, garlic cloves, jalapeno peppers, squash blossoms, olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Chop all ingredients and toss/stir in olive oil, or food process if you have kids and need to disguise the ingredients.
                   Serve with chips of your choice.
                   Boy do I welcome the return of spring. I can smell it through a foot of snow on the ground. The sun is warm on my face. This winter was a cold blooded killer here in Minnesota. I'll be in southern California next winter after a spring and summer on the lake, in the garden and on the golf course. Plus I will get out and visit friends. I was a hermit of circumstance and environment this winter.   

Panfried Sunfish w/ Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Garlic and Wine

             If you grew up in the Midwest it is likely that your earliest fishing memories involve a worm and a bobber and a sunfish. Watching your bobber was more interesting than not watching it.  If you caught fish, it was way more interesting.

              As you matured you did other things to keep fishing interesting, like shooting leeches with a bb gun as they were attached and hung vertically from the palms of the hands of your siblings or  friends on the shore of Lake Winnibigosh. Later on would come minnow eating contests, and twin brother Jim attempting to swallow a frog on a bet. He wanted the 35 cents to buy a pack of smokes. The frog kept jumping out of his mouth. I think we were drinking beer by then.

               Then, as an adult, Sally drank down 4 leeches, unbeknownst to her, in successive Black  Russians while on our fishing launch on Lake Mille Lacs. It was after dark and the Black Russians were as dark as the leeches. She never saw them. It was a perfect storm. Sally was pissed the next day when the story was leaked. Non the worse for it though, but wiser from the experience.

                No matter what your age, you should season your fish filets with lemon pepper, dredge in flour and pan fry them in oil or butter a couple of minutes on each side till bronze. Remove filets from pan( black cast iron skillet ) and add halved cherry tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, chives and white wine like chardonnay to the pan and reduce and add a couple of pats of butter. Pour over filets.

               Exquisite. As good as childhood or adolescence ever was, these days.          

Grilled Salmon w/ Fresh Fruit Salsa

         I caught a 5 lb freshwater coho salmon once while shore casting with a big rainbow Rapala and then a 10 lb steelhead twenty minutes later. That was at Lutsen Resort out of the mouth of the Poplar River in Lake Superior. Perhaps the signature day of fishing in my long, modest and distinctly amateur career as a fisherman. I was with my oldest son, Alex, while he was on summer break from college. We cooked the stuffed whole coho in foil in the embers of a lakeside fire on that early summer evening. The next day we caught plenty of walleyes on Poplar Lake on the Gunflint Trail.  I've had some lucky days.

        Use wild caught Alaskan salmon if possible or even better,  your own catch of Great Lakes
 salmon or trout. Brine the fish filets in a solution of 1 / 4 cup sea or pickling salt to 1 qt water for a half hour. Rinse. Brush with olive oil and season liberally with a good  lemon pepper( or make your own ). Grill skin on or off filets on your gas grill or Weber with charcoal or wood, covered, until med rare to medium - 4 to 5 minutes -  and remove from heat. You do not have to turn them over. They will continue cooking a little more and will retain moisture.

         Make your fresh fruit salsa a half hour before you cook your fish. As the fruits macerate with the spices and herbs they all uniquely influence the salsa as they make their own juice. Dice up your favorite fruits - mangos, pineapple or cantaloupe as the base, plus strawberries, kiwis, oranges and/or others ( watermelon) with green onions, sweet and hot red peppers, garlic, chopped parsley, cilantro and lime juice. Stir gently a few times. You could add a little brandy or rum to this, too.

          Place salsa on top of fish and serve family or buffet style with additional salsa.
       

Corned Beef Hash w/ Eggs on Toast

            You've gotta start out with a photo on a food blog but my system is down right now so here's an older photo of a light gumbo or bouillabaisse style soup with shrimp and summer vegetables - peppers, tomatoes, zucchini , etc..., served over rice. I can't wait for spring and summer and the exhuberant ebullience of fresh vegetables and fish simmered in God's own broth.

             But today I am writing of corned beef hash with toast and eggs. To be honest I'd rather have the pictured soup right now, but earlier today I fried onions, sweet and hot peppers. potatoes and corned beef  in my black cast iron pan till tender and crisp and ate it over toast with an over easy egg on top. Irish heaven on the day before St Pat"s. 

          
        

Corned Beef Sandwiches

             The tender fatty succulence of a just cooked and sliced corned beef brisket on bread is the very definition of a sandwich. A pungent mustard and/or a horse radish mayonnaise makes it the perfect accompaniment to tonight's Mn state high school boy's basketball tournament.
  
             Brine your own brisket( BYOB) or get one already brined and packaged. The brisket will usually weigh from just over 2 lbs to just over 4 lbs. Rinse well, cover and simmer in water on the stove top or in the oven for an hour per pound at 300 degrees until fork tender. Luscious.
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Cooking with Vaseline

No photo for this one, but I flunked cooking merit badge as a boy scout when I cooked pork chops in vaseline petroleum jelly while on a canoe trip. I forgot the cooking oil and figured vaseline was slippery like the oil so I put some in the pan.  Hind sight says I should have roasted them on a stick over the fire or done them on a grill grate. I was 13 yrs old. I boiled coffee grounds in water for a half hour to make coffee. The counselor spit it out. He was attempting to reduce the taste of burnt vaseline ( tar ) from his mouth. It didn't work. I flunked.    

Pizza Margherita

          Tomato sauce or sliced tomatoes, garden basil and fresh mozzarella.. Done in the oven or on the Weber. Can't wait for summer. Having a hamburger and root vegetable stew tonight over smashed boiled red potatoes. Still over 2 ft of snow on the ground. Nati flies to San Diego tomorrow  to see sister Karis ( "her can't cook") and brother Johnny, sous chef at the Top of the Market. Wish I could go, too, and eat like they will eat.
          They don't have fresh seafood and sushi in Hillman and I'm 75 miles from a good pizza. What am I doing here? History, habit, good venison, gamebirds and fish, I guess. Not next winter after this long and brutal one. Winters like this can kill you as it did 21 or more this time around.

Grilled Salmon with Melted Butter, Dill and Chopped Hard Boiled Eggs

           I often  refer to this recipe involving chopped hard boiled eggs and melted butter as Norwegian hollandaise sauce. Tongue in cheek, of course. Add plenty of dill weed and some lemon juice to the butter and eggs and ladle over grilled salmon filets or steaks. It is luscious.Dill is such a natural with salmon. Add garlic and crushed red pepper, or Worcestershire sauce and capers to the basic sauce according to taste and inclination.
           Get wild caught Alaskan salmon, if possible, skin on or off. Soak in a solution of 1/4 cup salt to 1 quart of water for a half hour. This will remove the sometimes excessive "salmon" flavor and make it more family friendly. Rinse. Dry with paper towels. Paint with olive oil, season liberally with lemon pepper. Grill to a warm medium rare or medium and remove from heat. It will continue to cook a little. Mostly, you don't want to overcook salmon. The general rule of thumb for cooking  salmon is 7 minutes per inch of thickness to get it fully cooked. Do the math, and grill accordingly. If you get it right, it melts like butter in your mouth.
           You could also do this recipe with oven baked or broiled  salmon.
               

Shore Lunch - The Full Monty

          The potatoes, the beans, the fish all together. It is as good to eat as it is to go fishing. Every recipe has a history, every taste a memory. The largemouth bass that Dad fried in the cottage kitchen on Pleasant Lake, a flying squirrel sitting on his shoulder. Bass is still  my favorite fish 50 years later. It was also the first fish I learned to catch with proficiency, thanks to Dad; Live frogs in those days. The walleye at Balsam Grove Lodge on the Gunflint Trail, caught by 9 yr old twin boys with an old timer guide, Carl Brandt Sr, the owner of the resort. Mom hated fish, but she sure cooked it good that time. Innumerable walleye at Headquarters Lodge at all times of the day with family and friends all those years. Come on down, we'd say, we caught some and we're cooking walleye. Fried potatoes and corn relish, hush puppies. Tarter sauce. Broiled with Jamaican spices. Blackened. Deep fried crispy in a wine batter. Later I would learn to saute' the filets and finish them off with reduced wine and butter and herbs in the French way, the best of all.

Shore Lunch - The Fish - Walleye, Northern Pike, Bass or Bluegill, etc

         Season your filets with salt and pepper and scant cayenne and pan fry in olive oil over medium high heat till golden, turn over and do it again. A general rule of thumb for cooking fish is 7 minutes per inch of thickness of the filet in order to get it completely cooked and safe, which is imperative with freshwater white fish.  Do the math. A bluegill filet will cook much quicker than a fat bass , for example. With a larger filet, reduce the heat by half after you flip it over. It needs more time to get done without burning.
      

Shorelunch - The Beans

          Sweat chopped onions and sweet and hot peppers in olive or vegetable oil and add canned beans of your choice. To sweat is to slowly cook the covered vegetables in a small amount of oil until they are soft. If you are not using sweet beans ( baked), add a little brown sugar or maple syrup. The sweet hot thing is irresistible even to Midwesterners. Make sure you marry the beans and fried potatoes on your fork as you eat.
          You can add diced, cooked bacon or ham or best of all, venison summer sausage to the beans, also.
         

Shore Lunch - The Panfried Potatoes

           Start with cut up boiled potatoes and diced onions. Pan fry in olive oil over medium heat in a black cast iron pan. Season with salt, pepper and garlic. Add crushed red pepper or cayenne as desired. The main thing is to get them crisp. Texture is important with fried potatoes. This along with beans and fish is one part of the holy trinity of a shore lunch on a Minnesota lake.
           Pay attention, make them perfect because if you don't get fish, you are down to potatoes and beans, which isn't too bad if they are good. 

Vegetable Beef Soup with Orecchiette and Pot Roast

           What I like about eating  orecchiette [ oh-rayk-kee-EHT-teh] in a soup is that each "little ear" holds some broth, especially in this recipe which is rich with the flavors of pot roast, root vegetables, mushrooms, red wine, garlic and herbs de Provence.
           Dice equal amounts of onions, sweet peppers, carrots, celery, and mushrooms and sweat in olive oil in a pan. To sweat is to cook in a covered pan in a small amount of fat( oil ) over low heat. The vegetables cook in their own juices and do not brown, according to the "Food Lover's Companion," which is a great reference book for all things food and also shows pronunciation for French and Italian words that some of us would never even get close.
           Add diced leftover pot roast, red wine ,garlic, bay leaves, herbs de Provence, beef broth  and pasta to the vegetables and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Serve with artisanal bread for dunking. Yup, this is good zuppa.    

 

Pot Roast

               There is nothing like an old fashioned 3 hour pot roast in the dead of winter. Deep and  rich and luscious. The pan juice is sweetened with carrots and onions. Garlic, red wine and herbs de Provence add character and complexity. The meat is a chuck or blade roast( same thing), which requires hours of cooking in order to become tender. It is perhaps the most flavorful cut of beef because of the amount of fat and connective tissue, which melts and dissolves during the roasting process. Done correctly, the meat is tender and juicy and melts in your mouth. The rich broth is great on the vegetables and for dunking artisanal bread.

Ingredients for roast: feeds 4 to 6 people

chuck roast - 3 to 4 lb
salt and pepper
3 cups water
1 cup red wine
4 cloves garlic, smashed
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons herbs de Provence
oil for browning meat
             1) Salt and pepper the meat and brown on both sides in oil in a black cast iron pan.
             2) Add water, wine, garlic, bay leaves and herbs de Provence.
             3) Cover pan with foil and place in 350 degree oven. Check every hour and add water as necessary. You do not want the broth to boil dry. Add cut up vegetables after 2 hours.

Vegetable ingredients:
              4-6 quartered potatoes
              2 med large yellow onions, quartered
              4-6 med large carrots, quartered
              mushrooms - 1/2 lb or more, halved
Method for vegetables
               1) Salt and pepper vegetables and add to roasting pan after 2 hours, checking broth level. Add water if necessary. Cook 1 more hour, remove pan from oven and test meat and vegetables with a fork to ensure tenderness. Remove what is done and cook what is not done until done.
                2) Serve family style with artisanal bread or hard rolls and butter to dunk in the pan jus.

Classic midwestern goodness .An all time favorite recipe.
















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Spaghetti Pie

 

             

         

               My daughter had spaghetti pie at an Old Chicago restaurant in the old town waterfront area of  Duluth Mn last fall. An easy recipe to figure out. Cook your pasta, angel hair here, drain w/o rinsing and place in an olive oiled glass pie dish. Press down pasta and top with spaghetti sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. Bake in a 350 degree oven until cheese is melted -  15 or 20 minutes. Or top with spinach in an alfredo sauce. Endless combinations of pastas and toppings are possible. Great for leftovers, too, by the slice.