How to prepare fresh fish- Part 1

I'll be the first to tell ya, I'm scared of fish.  Not scared of the actual fish...but I'm scared to cook fish.  Seafood in general really.  I just don't know enough about it.  I also do not know enough about what to buy and from where, so I never buy fresh fish (which seems kinda dumb seeing as how I live 200 feet from the water).  My brother-in-law however, is a fishin' fool.  (Meant in the nicest way.) He knows all about what's in season, all the rules, how to clean them, and how to cook them.  So, when my sister has fish coming out of her ears, she hooks me up with fresh, (already cleaned!) fish fillets.  I was lucky enough to share in their bounty of Rock fish this season, and I experimented with a couple of different ways to cook it.

Today I am sharing a tried and true, and always delicious way to prepare seafood, and that is to fry it!  It's the Southern way.  It is a rare occasion that I fry anything, but every once in a while, it's warranted..  When my Grandmother passed away, I "inherited" her FryDaddy. This makes frying a whole lot simpler and much less messy.  I don't know if making it easier for me to fry things is necessarily a good thing...but it sure made this fish delish!

I used House-Autry seafood breader (a NC company!), along with coating the fish in a little hot sauce. (b/c that's how my sister and BIL do it).  I also squeezed some fresh lemon juice over the fish once done....that's some good eatin' right there!  

Fried Fish Nuggets

fillets of fresh fish, cut into 2 inch chunks (I used Rock, but any firm flesh fish should work)
hot sauce (just a few shakes to coat fish)
seafood breader

oil for cooking (I used canola)

Place fish into gallon size plastic bag, add hot sauce, seal bag and shake to coat evenly.  Get oil to temperature (I used a FryDaddy, so all I had to do is turn it on and wait a few minutes).  Take fish chunks and roll in seafood breader until completely covered.  Carefully drop fish fillets into hot oil.  Fry until golden brown.  Remove from oil and place on a paper-towel lined plate.

To serve: squeeze fresh lemon juice over fish and chow down! Preferably with some corn bread or hushpuppies :-)  (And the fish isn't spicy for those of you who do not care for hot sauce.)

Tomorrow, I'm going to share the other cooking method I used.  What about you?  What's your favorite way to prepare seafood?  Do you feel comfortable with buying it or do you catch your own?  I really want to incorporate more fish into my diet.  Too bad I get sea sick just thinking about going into the ocean!

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