Lake Erie Perch

As I've said before, I love fresh Lake Erie Perch. When I was growing up, on Friday evenings during Lent I would walk to the Polish Club down the street from my dad's grocery and pick up a few fried perch dinners for my family. They included perch- fried to perfection, creamy in taste, some fries and cold cole slaw.

The fish fries crop up every year during Lent, but I hesitate, because as much as we love fried foods, it's to our benefit not to eat it. I have found that I get the same enjoyment from pan frying perch in just a little butter/olive oil mix. It really is the taste and texture of the fish itself that I love.

Basa with Herb Citrus Vinagrette

Yesterday and today again I made fish for dinner. Yesterday I wanted fresh lake perch which is so plentiful on Fridays around here during Lent, but everywhere has it deep fried. No denying, everything is better deep fried, but we know we should stay away from fats and oil. So I bought some lake perch myself and lightly floured and seasoned it and bake in the oven with a little olive oil at 450 degrees. Not bad, and it served as a good perch fix!

Today I made Basa, aka Vietnamese Catfish (so inexpensive) and used a light Herb Citrus Vinaigrette -pictured above-from Marie Simmons Fast and Fresh Cookbook. It really is easy and adds good flavor to the fish.

Basa w/Herb Citrus Vinaigrette

Olive oil to coat fish

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp orange zest

1 tsp. garlic finely chopped

1 Tbl fresh dill

1 Tbl fresh basil

1 Tbl italian parsley chopped

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/4 cup olive oil

3 Tbl fresh lemon juice

2 Tbl cold water

1 Tbl sun dried tomatoes minced

salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix vinaigrette ingredients together. (You can do this while the fish is cooking.)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Very lightly coat fish with olive oil so it stays moist. Bake fish 6-10 mnutes until almost done. Remove from oven and pour vinaigrette evenly overeach piece of fish. Place back in hot oven for a few minutes. Remove from oven and serve. Do not overcook fish.

Note- Marie Simmons recipe uses halibut.