Perch Fry

With all those perch I caught at Fish Lake, I was able to try using the smoker to cook the fish for pulling off the skin and de-boning and then frying the fish in a batter. This time, I did not marinade the fish and did not add the wood chips to add the smoke flavor. Since the perch are so much smaller than white fish, I cooked the fish in the smoker for only 1.5 hours at 225 degrees. After cooking, the skin easily came off. The meat also easily pulled off the bones except for the bones from the rib cage. These I had to pull out by running a fork or knife along them to dislodge them and then they came right out. The meat stayed together quite well and was perfect for dipping in batter and frying.

For the batter I used a mix from a box called Fish'n Chips Seafood Batter Mix made by McCormick. Turning the stove to medium, I added enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the frying pan. I dipped the pieces fish meat in the batter and placed them in the pan for a couple of minutes then turned them over and let them cook for another couple of minutes. Since the meat had already been cooked I wasn’t concerned with cooking the meat itself, just the batter on the meat.

Perch is my favorite fish for eating. They are not fishy tasting at all. My favorite part of this cooking experience was the next day when my daughter Madison, who is a picky eater, came home from school. Walking into the house she asked “Dad, do we have any more of that yummy fish that we had for dinner yesterday?”