I like it a lot

Good Monday morning!  I am writing this post from the river.  The wireless in the river mansion is slower than slow so I am poaching internet from the Great Samoan Hunter's office.  I am using one of the guide's desks, and I keep getting distracted by catalogues of shiny things like this:

Lucky for me, that reel is mine. I received that shiny beauty for Christmas.  For those of you who don't fish, receiving an upgrade in equipment improves ones cast (and badassness for having such a cool setup) enormously.  I went from driving a Hyundai to driving a BMW. Faster. More accurate. Smoother. Sexier. I really like my new reel.

After watching a marathon of a show called Alaska - The Last Frontier on the Discovery Channel, we were inspired to seek a little adventure of our own.  This show is about several families who live on a 600 acre homestead in Alaska.  They hunt, fish, grown their own fruits and veggies, can, raise cattle, among other things required to survive in the Alaskan wilderness.  We kept saying we could do that -- we could be homesteaders!  Well, after our self-sustaining weekend, I am confident we could at least feed ourselves. 

Fishing not only puts food on the table, it's fun, too!

Pan-sized dinner.

Tuli won the best dressed award, again.  Damn him.

Lovely.

Dinner.

I had various herbs in the fridge so I made a tasty garlic herb butter:

1 clove minced garlic, zest from 1/2 a lemon, handful chopped parsley,

cilantro and thyme.  Mix with half a stick of softened butter.

The smell is worth making this butter alone -- would be fabulous on just about anything.

Getting ready to bread the fish -- flour, egg wash, panko.

1st: flour with 1 tsp salt and pepper.

2nd: one scrambled egg.

3rd: panko breadcrumbs.

We also dredged one of the trout in chopped pecans, which was my favorite.

Nutty and sweet with the fish. Delicious!

Fried first in half of the herb butter and finished in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

Love the platter!

Served the fish with sauteed broccolini and lemon wedges.

Can't get any fresher than that.

You don't have to catch your own trout to make this dish.  Do try whole fish, though. I am not one who normally eats fish skin, but with the crunchy breading it wasn't at all fishy or gross.  The only thing I wasn't too keen on were a few bones, but even those were worth the effort of this delicious meal. 

Tonight I will be cooking the chukar that I shot yesterday.  I am telling you, the Discovery Channel might be interested in the adventures of this city mouse turned country mouse.  I like the country as much as I like my new reel.  A lot. I like it a lot.