Hush puppies and concerts!

This was the perfect night to try a little night fishing from the pier. The weather was clear, calm and cool..should have been good fishing. Should have been..but wasn't. Nary a bite..but we did enjoy a nice concert and watched shooting stars zip across the night sky. Our neighbors across the Bayou had a Halloween party complete with a live band. I am not sure if it was just a local band or if they had someone come in but they were actually good! Loud but good. I believe that our neighbors do not realize that the way their house is situated on the Bayou makes it more or less like an amphitheater with our house on the receiving end of their noise. All in all, it was not bad though because at least the band played a lot of the "oldies" so I recognized a lot of the tunes. The party will probably go on into the wee hours of the morning so I am supposing sleep is out of the question. I figure I can either fuss about it or sit back and enjoy a free concert. Hehe..not everyone can be at a concert in their jammies! This is one of those "when life hands you lemons..make lemonade" episodes!

The other day, I mentioned hush puppies made with the mullet roe and said that I would post a recipe if they turned out tasty. Well, they did and I will! It is quite simple actually and I admit I did change the recipe from the original. Since I do not drink beer, I had none on hand so I substituted buttermilk for that in the recipe. I also omitted the salt and added a bit of garlic.

Hush Puppies

1 cup plain yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup diced onion

3/4 cup fish roe (skinned and mashed)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 cup buttermilk

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. When well mixed, drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into hot oil and fry until golden brown! Serve with a warm jalapeno cheese sauce.

There is another tip that I would like to pass on to you. When frying fish, try cutting the fillets into thin strips and then dipping them in buttermilk before coating with cornmeal. The thin strips fry up crispy and the buttermilk makes the fish "sweeter".

Well..I think I will go back to enjoying the concert!

Ummm..I think I'll pass.

Today was a good day on the Bayou. Food is plentiful and free for the taking for those who are willing to do a bit of work. As I mentioned earlier, shrimp are "in" meaning they are schooling in the Bay making it easy to catch them. Throwing the net requires a good bit of strength and stamina but a good platter of fried shrimp makes it all worthwhile. Today's catch..approximately 14 pounds which yielded eight one-pound bags of headed and peeled shrimp for the freezer. When trying to become more self-sustainable, that is a hefty addition to the larder. But today's catch did not end there. Somewhere in the range of thirty-five mullet were caught and filleted. The mullet are in the Bay to spawn and are full of eggs or roe. Mullet roe is an acquired taste and many will pass on eating them. I have no qualms about eating the yellow roe (also called red roe for some incomprehensible reason). The "white roe", on the other hand...umm..uhhh..how about "No!" Think of what you are asking me to do..I do not think so..ewwww! White roe is also called "male roe" and that should explain it all! (There is another oxymoron for you..male roe???) For any who still need a bit of clarification..yellow roe is the female eggs..they are edible and even in some cultures considered a delicacy. I, personally, can take it or leave it..but I am not adverse to eating the yellow roe if that is all I have. No problem. White roe or male roe is actually the male testes according to Monterey Bay Aquarium. This I knew but as a reference it was great to find the Monterey Bay Aquarium website to cite. It is amazing how many people here will call the stuff "male roe" but then refuse to believe just what they are eating. This I do have qualms about eating..I refuse to eat "white roe". Think about it folks..nope..not happening. I will just pass. You might ask.."Would you eat it, if that was all you had?" Answer..I will become a vegetarian for a while! In a word..NOPE!

While we are on the subject of mullet roe, there is a recipe that I recently heard about that I hope to try. I do not fry a lot of foods any more but face it..I live in the Deep South and fried food is a definitive part of life here. When frying mullet fillets or any fish for that matter, it is almost a requirement that you serve the fillets with a side dish of "hush puppies". I love hush puppies with a good hot jalapeno cheese sauce! I could forgo all the rest of the meal and just take a platter of hush puppies and cheese sauce and be one happy camper! The recipe that I am anxious to try is a batch of hush puppies made with a good dollop of loose mullet roe added to the batter. Loose roe meaning the outer skin is slit and the eggs themselves are used in the batter. Perhaps tomorrow would be a good day to try this!