As a kid growing up in Minnesota, the Saturday night fish fry by the lake was a major part of any fishing weekend. We liked to fish at Lake of the Woods on the Minnesota-Canada border, and we were catching walleye. We camped with 3-4 other families depending on the weekend. Saturday night the dads cleaned and cooked the fish we had just caught. There was plenty of ribbing between the guys about not getting out all the bones, and the fish being too small. It was the best fish I have ever eaten. The fish was always served with fried potatoes on the side, and maybe garlic bread, but never any vegetables. Dads were cooking, and they weren’t serving any “rabbit food” to detract from their fish.
I can’t buy walleye in our local New Mexico grocery store, but frozen tilapia is cheap and easy to find. As long as its coated in Shore Lunch fish fry mix it still tastes vaguely like Minnesota walleye. Unfortunately, Shore Lunch isn’t sold in New Mexico either. My parents bring me a large box whenever they visit, but it can also be purchased online.
Thomas is our fish eater. He can eat so much fish that we wonder where he’s putting it. He tried Lutefisk at Christmas, 2008, and he even liked that. I still serve fish with potatoes on the side, either hashbrowns or raw fried potatoes. But I like “rabbit food”, so I always make room for a salad, and my dad still wrinkles his nose at it.
Minnesota Fried Fish
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. frozen Tilapia thawed, or use walleye if you have it
- Approx. 1 cup Fish fry mix preferably Shore Lunch although Zatarin’s is O.K. in a pinch
- Olive oil or canola oil
Instructions
- Pour enough olive oil into a large skillet to coat the bottom of the pan. Heat oil to medium or medium-high.
- Cut each tilapia filet into 4 parts.
- Pour fish fry mix into large Ziploc bag. Drop 4-6 fish fillets into the bag at a time, and shake to coat.
- Fry fish half of the fish at a time, flipping after the first side as reached a golden color. Continue cooking until the second side is also golden, adding more oil if needed to keep the bottom of the pan covered.
- Serve with hashbrowns or raw fried potatoes, and a simple salad.
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