In My Mother's Kitchen - Fish with Almonds
Today is Father's Day. I have a pretty fantastic Dad, but he didn't cook at all. This was largely because Mom preferred to do the cooking, not because Dad wasn't capable. On those few occasions when Dad was the cook, we ate well. We certainly didn't resort to take out or microwave dinners like they show in sitcoms with incompetent fathers.
Dad's main contribution to the larder was hunting and fishing. When I was a kid, we went fishing on fairly regular basis. Maple Lake was the usual destination, but we did hit a scattering of other Minnesota Lakes, or occasionally Ardoch. We mostly fished for pan fish like crappies, sunnies, pumpkin seeds and bluegills. We also caught perch and the occasional northern or the even more occasional walleye. When we lived in Montana we went for brookies or rainbows.
We sometimes caught rather a lot of fish, and sometimes we brought fish home. These were almost always crappies or closely related. I think that Dad usually cleaned them, but that left Mom to cook them. The main meal I recall coming from these was cooked in the oven and covered in butter with some kind of almond and herb topping. I did not much care for this preparation, and if you'd asked me as a kid I would have rated it behind liver as the meal I disliked the most. I'd have been happier if we'd never brought any fish back to Mom. I know now from having had fried walleye in the Boundary Waters that a fried fish dinner can be fantastic, but we never did that at home that I can recall. Instead we had had this same white fish recipe over and over again.
As I got older and started playing sports, we went fishing less and less and this meal turned up less and less. I can't tell you the last time I had it, but it's probably been at least 25 years and maybe more, and the recipe has been lost, which is fine by me. Eventually we only went fishing on our annual BWCA trip, and finally we decided it was far too much work for us to fish at all when there were perfectly good naps and day trips to be had. Instead we mooched Shore Lunch encrusted walleye off of our camping friend Don when he had a good fishing day. Don likes catching fish, and he likes cooking them, and we like eating them so it worked out ok.
As far as other fish go, I don't really remember having salmon growing up beyond the occasional bagels and lox luncheon at one or the other of our synagogues, which was a rare special occasion. We certainly didn't have sushi in North Dakota back then, and even if we had it's the one genre of food my mother has shown little interest in trying. Aside from some tempura when we met my aunt and uncle in Madison, WI in 1991, I didn't have try sushi out until 2004 or so. Now salmon is the fish I prepare the most often at home, but I do make a lot of other fishes as well. Heck, I've even made gefile fish a few times.
In an editorial note, after another exchange of emails I've updated the liver post again, including a rare title update as we've sorted out some recipe names. That's what I get for not vetting them ahead of time.
Dad's main contribution to the larder was hunting and fishing. When I was a kid, we went fishing on fairly regular basis. Maple Lake was the usual destination, but we did hit a scattering of other Minnesota Lakes, or occasionally Ardoch. We mostly fished for pan fish like crappies, sunnies, pumpkin seeds and bluegills. We also caught perch and the occasional northern or the even more occasional walleye. When we lived in Montana we went for brookies or rainbows.
We sometimes caught rather a lot of fish, and sometimes we brought fish home. These were almost always crappies or closely related. I think that Dad usually cleaned them, but that left Mom to cook them. The main meal I recall coming from these was cooked in the oven and covered in butter with some kind of almond and herb topping. I did not much care for this preparation, and if you'd asked me as a kid I would have rated it behind liver as the meal I disliked the most. I'd have been happier if we'd never brought any fish back to Mom. I know now from having had fried walleye in the Boundary Waters that a fried fish dinner can be fantastic, but we never did that at home that I can recall. Instead we had had this same white fish recipe over and over again.
As I got older and started playing sports, we went fishing less and less and this meal turned up less and less. I can't tell you the last time I had it, but it's probably been at least 25 years and maybe more, and the recipe has been lost, which is fine by me. Eventually we only went fishing on our annual BWCA trip, and finally we decided it was far too much work for us to fish at all when there were perfectly good naps and day trips to be had. Instead we mooched Shore Lunch encrusted walleye off of our camping friend Don when he had a good fishing day. Don likes catching fish, and he likes cooking them, and we like eating them so it worked out ok.
As far as other fish go, I don't really remember having salmon growing up beyond the occasional bagels and lox luncheon at one or the other of our synagogues, which was a rare special occasion. We certainly didn't have sushi in North Dakota back then, and even if we had it's the one genre of food my mother has shown little interest in trying. Aside from some tempura when we met my aunt and uncle in Madison, WI in 1991, I didn't have try sushi out until 2004 or so. Now salmon is the fish I prepare the most often at home, but I do make a lot of other fishes as well. Heck, I've even made gefile fish a few times.
In an editorial note, after another exchange of emails I've updated the liver post again, including a rare title update as we've sorted out some recipe names. That's what I get for not vetting them ahead of time.