Fast, Fresh, Fabulous Fish

I understand that not everyone is a seafood lover, but I do not understand why. My dad and I have always been the only two in our immediate family who will eat almost anything - I can remember as just a young girl, my dad coming home from work and often surprising me with octopus salad, which we would share right from the container until he would leave the last piece for me - let me just say I can count the number of foods I do not like on one hand. And if I do not prefer a food, it is usually not a distaste for the food itself, but rather for the way in which it was prepared. "Distaste", what an awful word, I can't believe I just said it.

Being that Lake Erie is practically my backyard, it is no surprise that there is great fish in this area. So, it is inevitable that my mom, and older brother and sister, have become accustomed to some seafood and I do not just mean shrimp. This recipe, in fact, is one that even they will taste on the occasional Christmas Eve when, for us, meat is not an option.

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It is breaded, oven fried perch. Do not tell me that does not make you hungry. And my trick here is slicing your perch fillets into small pieces, that way you do not have a huge piece of fish merely coated with the the breading flavours, but rather a bite size piece that does not allow for the fish to overpower the tasty seasoning. Do not get me wrong, the breading is not your typical thick, beer battered deep fry, and I guarantee you won't eat just one!

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The Recipe

Ingredients:

perch fillets

dry bread crumbs, of your choice

grated parmesan cheese

thyme

milk

Cut your fillets into small pieces, not too small, enough to allow for a couple bites worth. Combine your bread crumbs, parmesan, and thyme. Dip your fish pieces in milk and coat with bread crumb mix.

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Lay your breaded perch pieces on a greased, flat baking pan. Drizzle melted butter over the pieces or I sometimes just slice some shavings of butter to put atop each piece, which will melt on its own once in the oven.
Bake at 450 degrees, until the fish flakes easily with a fork. The length of time will depend on the thickness of your fish.

Once cooked, eat as is or add lemon, pour on tomato sauce, or add slivers of parmesan or parsley flakes.

Serve as an appetizer or meal,

Haley