salmon of the prairie

Pike for one:

- Three fat, fresh, clean fillets of "Northern"

- One big whack of butter, and none of the cheap imitation crap either. :P

- Pepper to taste.

Preheat large cast iron skillet to a point just below the burning temperature of butter. Experience counts.

Preheat a plate in the oven to 150F

Melt butter in the pan and add fillets.

Add pepper to taste (or not) to the sides that are facing up and after turning them, pepper the other side lightly as well.

Cook fillets only just until the flesh at the thickest part turns white. The fillets should cook rapidly if your pan is a good temperature.

Serve on warmed plate and live large.

I had nothing but fish. No carbs, no veggies, just fish and whopping mouthfuls at that. If the temperature in the pan is correct it seems as if the fish doesn't take on much of the fat like it might at lower temperatures, but I have no idea whether this is a reality for others.

I went to bed very happy.

I had opportunity to help out a local old timer who lives pretty much on what he kills. ehhe It sounds so silly when it's written out like that, but it's true.

He had a clock that his Mum loved that needed what my Dad would have called a "hemming". A hemming is a cheap fix to eek out another ten thousand miles to aid in letting the trip to the garbage can come a little easier knowing death is imminent well ahead of schedule. :D

After coaxing this bit of plastic back from the brink, he suggested that tomorrow he'd come by with a fishing reel he'd like me to look at. I smiled bravely and was grateful to have learnt some acting.

The fishing reel was about the same quality as Mum's clock. I made the problem go away inside 45 minutes and listened intently all the while to some fun stories about growing up in the back country.

As I'm on the way back to the shop after saying our goodbye, he asked if I liked fish.

I grew up on the west coast from the age of seven, having been born on the prairie, so I am known to slobber uncontrollably when I'm separated from fresh fish for too long. I wiped my chin as I responded in the affirmative and he pulled out a bag with six jack fish and asked if I knew how to fillet them. Saliva now soiling my beard, I took the time to show him the special knife for preparing boneless pike fillets my brother had gifted me and said, "hell yeah!"

They were still flinching in the bag. They represented an hour and a half on St. Malo Lake and I was thinking evil thoughts of overpayment! I recovered fortunately and the girls will get their share tonight.
Alive and kicking.


** Bruce I could use a video on how to hone my skills!