You might have recently read my post on the canadian bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich as possibly being one of my favorite meals at breakfast. The one that trumps that breakfast is fried fish and eggs. While growing up in Indiana, and even moving to Wisconsin, we spent a lot of time at my grandparents home in Monticello, Indiana. This is where it all began.
Monticello was a nice little town, and as kids, it was a perfect place to be. My grandparents lived in a small community located on one of waterways that led into Lake Freeman. It was just the best place to visit. One of our routines was to wake up at the crack of dawn, grab our fishing poles, and go fishing for at least two to three hours. My grandparents had their own pier, and just short of the end of the pier was a large stump in the water. This was a hot spot that simply attracted large pan fish such as bluegill, sunfish, and crappie. In my opinion, the best eating fish out there. As we would catch them, and lots of them, either my dad or grandpa would come down to check on us, and the catch, and begin cleaning them. Once cleaned, we would take them back to the house and have them for breakfast.
There is something to be said about this breakfast. It is light, but hearty, and just has the best texture, and is one that I could eat every weekend. It brings back great childhood memories, and is one I just shared with my kids this past weekend.
Ingredients:
- Panfish filets
- 1/4 cup of flour
- 1 tsp of salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 cup of canola oil for frying
Add the salt and pepper to the ziploc bag, and add in the flour. Seal and shake. Next take a few fish fillets and add them to the bag, lightly, and I mean lightly coating. We are not looking for a thick coating on the fish, but something extremely light. You could use light cornmeal if you wanted to as well.
Heat your oil in your fry pan on medium heat, and when it comes to temperature, drop in your fish. Fry only for a couple of minutes on each side, as they will not take long to cook due to the size of the fillets. Remove and let excess oil drain on some paper towel. Sprinkle a bit of salt on each fillet. Repeat.
Cook your eggs to your liking, and plate with the fish fillets, some fresh fruit, and some toasted bread.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank a new friend, Bill “the fisherman”, who was so kind to bring two very large bags of fish fillets to the house. The breakfast and memories could not have been possible without that delivery of fish.