A Southern Supper of Trout, with Butter-Lime-Caper Sauce, Sweet Potato Wedges, Coleslaw and Hushpuppies!



Trout with butter-lime-caper sauce, cinnamon dusted sweet potato wedges, coleslaw, hushpuppies

This supper is on the heels of going through the week of Christmas thinking that I am just tired of the same old food! We'd just had a similar menu for Thanksgiving and the thought of cooking that tired menu, although I do love traditional foods during the holidays, just gave me fits. So, I started to make menu changes then, and to our traditional foods like ham, dressing and gravy, pear and cheese salad, I added Country Captain over white rice, butterbeans, roasted asparagus with Parmesan and Romano cheese and corn fritters with red pepper jelly.  If you would like to see the menu and recipes for Christmas Day, just check out this site; www.southernsundaydinner.com. We are still talking about how much we enjoyed the old and the new.

Now, here I am in the next week trying to think of something different for supper. What will it be? I really enjoy a good fish dinner, or should I say that I enjoy a dinner with good fish. So, it was time that I bought some fresh fish. The store had pretty trout, and I could lightly dust it with flour and fry it in butter. Finishing the fish would be easy, all I have to do is add more butter, a couple of tablespoons of capers and a splash of lime juice. The ideas started to fly though my head. Coleslaw would be good with that too, so would home-made hushpuppies, which I have not made in a long time. Oh, and I already have sweet potatoes in the pantry.

Oh yummy, I said, a plan. The lime juice from the sauce on the trout would be a good complement to the cinnamon dusted sweet potatoes. And, the hushpuppies would be a  nice complement to the coleslaw. And, it was! I made it all, and it was a good supper all the way around. Would you like the recipes?


Hushpuppies!

The Trout

2 servings

 

2 trout filets

1/2 cup flour with salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter

 

 

Mix flour with salt and pepper. Lightly dust the trout.

Add butter to a skillet large enough to hold both pieces of trout.

Heat the butter until sizzling. Add the trout, skin side down and making sure the thickest part of the fish is toward the center of the skillet. Cook for 2 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Turn to the other side, again, making sure that the thickest part of the filet is toward the center of the skillet, and finish cooking. Time for cooking depends on size and thickness of the fish. You should be able to touch the fish and feel the firmness. Remove the fish to a plate and keep warm.

 

Sauce

 

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons capers

2 tablespoons lime juice

 

Add the butter to the skillet set on medium high. Add the capers. The butter will start to brown. Add the lime juice and let the sauce thicken. Divide the sauce between the two servings of fish.

 

Sweet Potato Wedges

 

 

2 sweet potatoes

cinnamon

 

Cover a baking sheet with foil and place the sweet potatoes on the sheet. Bake sweet potatoes in a 350 degree oven until almost done. Remove from the oven, and slice the potatoes into wedges. Remove skin. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray. Place potato wedges back on the baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon. Put back in the oven to finish baking until tender.

 

 

Coleslaw

 

There really is not a recipe for this, but I make it like my mother made it. I use a bag of angel hair coleslaw mix which has 6-7 cups finely grated cabbage. About 3/4 cup chopped bread and butter pickles, plus a couple tablespoons pickle juice, a teaspoon sugar, and enough mayonnaise to make it creamy. Mix it all together and chill until ready to serve.

 

 

 

Hushpuppies, Hush!

 

 

1 cup self-rising corn meal mix (I use Martha White Hot Rize, white cornmeal)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg, beaten

3 green onions, including the stems, thinly sliced (you could also use chopped jalapenos)

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk*

 

Mix all together. Batter will be thick, but if you can see dry cornmeal, add more buttermilk, a little at a time.

Prepare a small, deep heavy saucepan for frying the hushpuppies by adding about 2-3 inches of oil, and place over medium or medium high heat. When the oil starts to move, scoop out hushpuppy batter a tablespoon at a time and add to the hot oil. A one tablespoon ice cream scoop works great for this. Your saucepan should be deep, but large enough to hold 3-4 hushpuppies at a time. Brown hushpuppies on each side, and remove to paper towels to drain. Serve hot. Makes 13 hushpuppies. These are great with a little red pepper jelly on the side.*You want a thick batter, so add the extra two tablespoons sparingly. It would be better to add one at a time as needed.