Creole cooking with the Bayou Boogie-man, Leonard

SIX WAYS TO FRY FISH

1. Season generously with Creole seasoning or salt and pepper, 2 cups corn meal and 1 cup flour. Place in paper bag. Cut perch lengthwise, or into bite-size fillets. Add to corn meal mixture in paper bag and shake. Remove from bag, shake off the excess mixture, and drop in deep fat (at 375 degrees.) Fry until brown and turn over once when they float. Remove and drain on absorbent paper.

2. For a change, spread mustard on fish before dipping in flour and meal mixture. Fry as directed above.

3. Soak in rich milk for 1 hour. Drain, add to bag and shake. Remove and fry as directed above.

4. Soak fish in beer (use good beer!) for 10 minutes before placing in paper bag. Fry as directed above.

5. Cut lengthwise slit in perch and place in dishpan. Season all over generously with Creole seasoning, and a dash Worcestershire sauce and Louisiana red hot sauce. (Mix the sauce all over fish inside and out.) Dip in mixture of 2 cups corn meal and 1 cup flour. Shake, and fry in deep fat the same way as above.

6. Instead of dipping in corn meal and flour, try pancake batter with milk added to soften it. Dip seasoned fish and fry as directed above.

MUSHROOM-STUFFED BAKED RED SNAPPER

2 oven-ready whole red snappers, 2 and 1\2 pounds each
1\2 cup dry white wine
3\4 cup water
1\2 pound fresh mushrooms or an 8-ounce can of mushroom stems & pieces
3 tablespoons margarine, divided
1\2 cup finely chopped celery
5 tablespoons minced onions
8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped
1\2 cup soft bread crumbs
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Creole seasoning or salt & pepper

Rinse, pat dry and finely chop 1\4 pound mushrooms. Quarter the remaining mushrooms or drain canned mushrooms. Set aside.

In a small skillet, melt 1 tablespoon margarine, add celery and 3 tablespoons of onions. Sauté 5 minutes. Combine sautéed celery mixture with mushrooms, water chestnuts, bread crumbs, egg, soy sauce, parsley and seasoning. Mix well and spoon into fish cavity. Secure openings with skewer or toothpicks. Sprinkle both sides of fish with Creole Seasoning.

Place in a large baking pan; dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of margarine, 2 tablespoons onion, the wine, and water. Bake, uncovered, in a pre-heated moderate oven (350 degrees.) for 45 to 50 minutes. Baste occasionally. Test with fork - when fish flakes, it is done.

SMOKED FISH

8 bass fillets (or other fish)
1\2 cup lemon juice
1 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Creole seasoning to taste
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons dry mustard, basil leaves, bay leaves and thyme

Marinate fillets in mixture of lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, Creole seasoning (to taste) and olive oil, for 1 hour. Place fillets on wire rack in barbecue pit over low coals and hickory chips. Cook 15 minutes per pound of fish.

When fillets are about half-done, place basil leaves and thyme under them and smoke until done. Baste often with butter and dry mustard mixture. Serves 4.

As always, in order to make it just right, while cooking you must listen to some high steppin' ZYDECO and Cajun music!

Listen to the Bayou Boogie Dance Party (the best of Southwest Louisiana ZYDECO, Cajun and Swamp-pop.)


Ode To Abraham

Small bronzéd penny spinning so,
What if you were a nickel, though?
And from a nickel make two dimes -
You'd be one penny twenty times.

Add five more kin, why, you would be a whole quarter
And then, my small friend, I'd be known as a horder
For with four-to-one odds in a good game of luck,
My twenty-five pennies would soon be a buck.

And from one buck to five is but a small jump,
A not-at-all large, insurmountable hump.
So five turns to ten and ten turns to twenty
And then, my old friend, I've got money aplenty.

What's this? You look tired, saddened and glum;
Perhaps you'll feel better if I was to hum
That not for a George, Ben, Jackson or Jack Ken'y
Would I forget you, my small bronzéd penny.

-Huckleberry

Old Guy - Amy

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