Crappie With Brown Butter Prosciutto Caper Sauce

We’ve made a dish titled ‘Pan Seared Catfish With Brown Butter On Black Olive Toast’ and we think it’s delicious, so we decided to have a version of it for dinner last night. As I mentioned several posts ago, we have several packages of frozen crappie so it’s fish night again. Following is the recipe for the complete dish and when I first saw it and showed Bev, she was less than enthused about having it. After several trys, she finally said she'd try it if I wanted to cook it. After one bite she said this is definitely a company quality meal and I agreed. We've since served it a few times to guests and it has always been a hit.

Makes 4 servings
Prep time 20-30 minutes, cooking time 15 minutes for four

3.8 oz Can sliced ripe olives, drained and minced
1 ½ tsp Coarse mustard
3 ½ tsp Olive oil
Four Catfish fillets, 4-6 oz, ½ inch thick
1 tsp Hot sauce
1 Tbsp Fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp Butter
2 oz Prosciutto or country ham, julienned (we’ve tried both and notice no difference)
1 Tbsp Capers, rinsed and chopped
3 Tbsp Sliced almonds, toasted
Four French bread, ½ inch slices

1. In a small bowl mix olives, mustard, and 1 ½ tsp olive oil. Set aside.
2. Heat oven to 250 F.
3. In a small bowl, stir together 2 tsp olive oil, hot sauce, and lemon juice. Brush on both sides of fish. Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat and add fish fillets, two at a time. Cook about 5 minutes per side, or until brown, turning only once. Transfer to an oven-proof dish and keep warm in oven. Repeat with remaining fish fillets.
4. Over medium heat, melt butter in same skillet (fish drippings remain in skillet). When lightly brown, add prosciutto and sauté for a couple of minutes – be sure to mix in all pan drippings. Remove from heat and stir in capers and almonds.
5. Just before serving, toast French bread and spread with black olive mixture. Place a piece of toast on each plate, top with catfish , and spoon over prosciutto-butter sauce.

For this meal, we decided to forego the olive toast part and just do the fish and sauce/topping, substituting crappie for catfish.

The first step for me was to toast the almonds which I just did in a small dry skillet.

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These are the ingredients for the fry coating. The used tequila bottle with the cactus in it makes a nice decorative olive oil bottle to keep beside the cooktop.


My little pile of prosciutto from Bentons Country Ham prior to chopping.


Everything ready for the fry coating and the sauce/topping.


The crappie is dry and ready for the fry coating to be brushed on.


I fried the crappie to a light brown on both sides. These little fellers are very delicate, especially the little wing-like piece.


I just browned the butter slightly, added the ham and warmed it with maybe a slight crisping. Then turned off the heat, added the capers and almonds and it was ready to go.


This is my plate using my usual camera settings.


This is my plate after my daughter, Wende, showed me some settings on the camera that allow me to do many more things than I knew of.


Hopefully, my pictures will now improve - especially if I can hold the camera steady - may have to get me a tripod.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments.

Larry

Red Beans And Rice

We’re not big time Cajun food fans and I will nearly always opt for potatoes or pasta over rice, but we do enjoy the occasional dish and visit the Cajun style restaurant (Bayou Bay Seafood House) in Knoxville when it’s convenient. I like reading Cook’s Illustrated magazine in part because the engineer in me in drawn to their scientific approach to recipe development. The Jan/Feb 2010 issue has a recipe for red beans and rice, which sounded pretty good, and since I'd found some Andouille during freezer reorganization the other day, it seemed like a meal that was meant to be for last night’s dinner.

Here's the chopped veggies - the onion, green pepper, celery trinity per Emeril - and bacon.


The beans after soaking over night - I just used beans labeled 'Small Red Beans' on the package.


This is the spice package ready to be added.


The cooking veggies and spices just prior to adding the beans and liquid.


The sliced sausage. I found two different kinds in the freezer and decided to use some of both - never pass up a taste test opportunity. I think the darker one came from one of the well known suppliers in Louisiana, but I can't remember which one - it was better than the other one.


Everything in the pot and cooking. It took about an hour longer to cook than called for in the recipe. I think I was cooking it a little easier as I didn't want it to stick to the pan.


Here's my plate - I should have not used the flash.


It turned out very good and I’d definitely cook it again - leftovers for lunch today . Surprisingly, Bev said it was a little warm for her and I added some extra heat to mine, which is the reverse of normal for us.

Have a great day and I love to get comments.

Larry

Visit To Cumberland Gap

I trust everyone has had plenty of time to salivate over the liver, so it's time to post something new.

My son recently moved to the Cumberland Gap area of East Tennessee and we made our first visit to their place this week. In case you’ve forgotten your history, Cumberland Gap is the saddle gap in the mountains that allowed for easier passage from the Virginia/Tennessee area into Kentucky. Daniel Boone is famous, in part, for development of the Wilderness Road through the gap and leading hundreds of folks to new settlements in Kentucky.

We did a little touring around the area, went by the National Park visitors center, and ate at Webb’s Country Kitchen. This is a place to which I’d been considering making the 2 hour drive just to eat there, but this allowed us to eat there and visit with our kids and grandkids.

Here’s a picture of the main street of Cumberland Gap with the gap upper right– not much in the little town anymore as most of the activity, including Lincoln Memorial University are next door in Harrogate .


And here is Webb’s from the outside and a shot of the ambience of the inside.



Here’s our very country, and excellent, waitress – she was a perfect fit for the place.


This is us, hungry and waiting for the grub. From right to left, it’s my son, wife, daughter-in-law and me.


This is “the Gap” breakfast ($6.79) and it was delicious – especially the homemade sausage gravy and hot, fresh made , flaky biscuit.


This is the after shot. If I'd had another half biscuit they maybe wouldn't have even needed to wash my plate.


And perhaps the most important part of the trip was to visit the grandkids King Matthew and Butterfly Sofia.


A nice visit and I'm looking forward to the next one or meeting them part way at the Cove Lake State park BBQ restaurant

Liver & Onions - Everybody’s Favorite

I grew up eating beef liver smothered in sautéed onions and Bev did not – I still like the dish, as most of you probably do, and she absolutely does not. So when I want it, I either order at a restaurant or fix it for myself at home - she won't even fix it for me. Today’s project was freezer reorganization and I discovered several packages that need to be used soon, so I decided to start today.

My mother always prepared liver by dredging it in flour and frying in a skillet, but during one of my restaurant trips, I was served the liver grilled and decided I liked it. I prepared it by just giving it a light coat of Billy Bones Beefmaster BBQ rub and grilling it quickly over high heat on the gas grill. As you can see, I added some cheddar cheese to one piece. I sautéed a sliced medium onion in a little butter and bacon grease.

I had planned to sprinkle on some diced fried bacon before the onions, but it was already gone, so it was just the liver and onions. Here are a few pics that I'm confident even you none liver lovers will enjoy :).



Even had a few small pieces that the dogs really enjoyed.



I liked the BBQ rub on it and think I would like a different cheese, but the cheddar didn't work as well as I'd hoped. While I wouldn't want to eat it every day, I enjoyed my 2-3 times a year meal.

A White Christmas Wish

I’ve said this before, but I’m still a kid at heart when it comes to snow and I always wish for a white Christmas here in East Tennessee. The year we moved here right out of college, we were very homesick as we were away from family for the first time. On Christmas eve, it was warm enough that folks were out washing their cars and the prediction was for rain the next day – even more depressing. We awoke Christmas morning to a beautiful 4” snow and even though it didn’t stay around for long, it sure turned our holiday mood around.

Growing up in northern West Virginia, we didn’t always have a white Christmas, but we had many and I always loved it when we did. I've had this fantasy of living in a small town in rural New England and going out into the woods behind a horse drawn sleigh to harvest our tree - the kind of scene you see on Christmas cards. I say all this to say I really like a good snow now and then (just not the kind that knocks out our power) and especially at Christmas.

We go to a time share resort in South lake Tahoe every other year and this year we went in late February, in part to get a snow fix. There was very little snow when we got there but there were predictions of some to come during our visit. We often like to drive over to the Bay Area for a couple of days and since my daughter Wende was along and had never been, off we went. We took in a little of San Francisco, and wine country while there.

It was snowing when we left the Tahoe area with the prediction of a major storm. It snowed the entire time we were gone and we drove through a near white out coming back through the mountains. It was significant enough that Interstate 80 was closed and Route 50 was the only way back – so it was 25 mph behind a long string of vehicles all the way through the mountains. It continued to snow all night and when we woke the next day, there was 3-4 feet at the resort where we were staying – it’s at the 8000 foot level.

Back in August, I posted one of these pictures for practice when I was just starting the blog and here are a few more of an idyllic white Christmas setting. All were taken out our condo windows.





I'm certainly not hoping for this, but enough to completely cover the grass in the pasture next door would be great. So here’s wishing a white Christmas to every one who wants one.

Larry

A Little Snow & Southern Comfort Food

We awoke Saturday morning to a nice little snow that covered the grass and trees and made it pretty out – I like the snow covered landscape. I maybe should have titled this post – “Major Snowstorm Hits East Tennessee – Up to One Inch Reported In Some Areas.” As a transplanted yankee from northern West Virginia, I do like to make a little fun of how the locals react to even a snow prediction. It’s a good thing it was the weekend as all the things that normally get closed with just a little snow didn’t have to be.

Here are a few shots of the scenery and the very active bird feeders – glad I filled them Thursday. These first two are of the woods.



It never did cover the driveway.


A shot across the azaleas toward the neighbors pasture.


The little Japanese maple still has lots of it's leaves.


It was a pretty wild time at the bird feeders with a continuous stream of hungry eaters.



There's still a little snow laying around this morning, but it was pretty well a one day event.

Since it was to be a football watching day in front of the fire with, my alma mater, WVU playing Rutgers at noon and the SEC Conference Championship at 4pm, it seemed like a good day for easy to prepare comfort food. We settled on county steak, which we hadn’t had in a long time, with mashed potatoes and biscuits - real health food huh.

I went freezer diving and came up with six pieces of cubed steak and a sirloin that we used the meat mallet on. The meat was dredged in flour and browned, then covered with gravy and into the oven for a couple hours to get real tender.

We’re still working through our potato crop and are now down to just a few pounds. We used a mix of yukon gold, red norland and kennebec, that we peeled (due to the heavy skin they now have), boiled and hand mashed with butter and milk. No need to put a lot of extra flavors into the potatoes since they got smothered in good gravy.

I didn't take any food pics as it was pretty basic stuff, but trust me it looked and tasted great. We'll have to eat something green today to make up for that meal. WVU won.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments.

Larry

The Season’s First Fire

We woke up to temperatures in the low 30’s Friday morning with a predicted high in the 40’s. We even have a prediction of a little snow tomorrow and high in the upper 30’s. Sounds like it’s cool enough to crank up the fireplace. We have a fireplace upstairs which we only use for special occasions and one in the downstairs den room with an insert, which we actually use to get some heat from. After taking Alex to school, I fired up the lower unit and plan to keep it going for the next several days while it’s cool. I really like a nice fire and have lot’s of wood I need to use to make room for a big oak log that’s about to be cut up and split. I’m using some oak a little pile of sycamore from a limb that broke off in the spring. It doesn’t produce a high heat, but it does burn well and makes a pretty fire. Here's a shot with the doors open.


Then with the doors closed and the blower on, it raised the room temperature from 62 to 70 in a couple of hours - I was actually a little too warm.


Here's a shot from a little further back - that's the sofa arm in the lower right.


In an effort to get some benefit for the remainder of the house, I’ve replaced a few of the drop ceiling tiles with an open plastic grid. This allows the heat to go into the area between floors and warm the upstairs floors a little.