Learning to cook Part II
Back in the good old days before COVID, me and my hiking buddy Dave, in some springs, would fish for brook trout in the Cobequid Hills, and shad in the Musquodoboit River near his place.
Two entirely different experiences. Whereas your typical trout goes leaping and racing downstream, the reel singing its cicada song, your typical hooked shad, large or small, heads for the bottom to lay there like a log. With shad, all the fun is in the eating.
Dave, not being much of a fish eater, usually gives me his catch. And though Beth and I both like fish, especially me, our latest two ended up in the freezer, where she recently found them. And, having nothing better on hand for supper that evening -COVID having handicapped our shopping - she handed me the job and went for a nap.
Gulp. For I knew mere frying wouldn't do, what with all the tiny bones in this herring relative. To dissolve those would take considerable heat. So, an oven job. And since one shad would do for the two of us, I put the other one back in cold storage. At least they were gutted and cleaned. All I had to do was scrape off its big shiny scales. That done, I found a Pyrex tray to put it in.
Let's see. Broil or bake? Clicking the ‘Broil’ setting on our electric stove, I saw ‘500 degrees F.’ Seemed a bit high, so I checked ‘Bake’. It called for ‘350 F.’, which seemed more reasonable for one smallish fish.
By now it was 5 p.m. The fish having thawed, I wondered what to serve with it, and how, and not just boiled veggies. Of course. What I needed was a recipe. Beth has a shelffull dating back decades. I grabbed the thickest tome, a red-and-white hardcover titled Mennonite Community Cookbook (Herald Press, 1978), by Mary Showalter,
Under ‘Poultry and Fish’ on page 89, I found this:
Baked Stuffed Fish:
2 teaspoons salt
2 onions
6 medium-sized potatoes
4 to 5 strips of bacon
1 cup hot water
Clean fish and leave whole. Rub salt on the inside and outside. (I wouldn't have thought of that...) Place in a roasting pan. Cut onions and potatoes into rather thick slices, and lay these around and inside (nor that...) of the fish. Sprinkle vegetables with salt. Lay strips of bacon on top of the fish. (Now we're talkin'!) Add hot water and bake at 375 degrees for approx. 1¼ hour. Serves 6 to 8.
Having only one small fish for only two people, I halved everything but the temperature and time. Then, hoping for the best, and for Ms. Showalter's blessing, wherever she might be, I slid the works into the hot oven.
By now it was after 6 p.m. Around 6:30, I opened the oven door for a peek. Hmmm ...bacon still whitish. Forked a spud ... still a bit tough. So I gave 'em another 20 minutes. By 7 p.m. our meal was ready. Setting the table, I went and woke her. Apart from the myriad bones, which made for a few jokes, it was surprisingly tasty. She liked, I liked… success.