Fruit of The Sea

My dear brother Holmes went surf fishing two days ago and brought home eight nice whiting. He was cold from the water and wind, but beaming with pleasure.

That night we ate whiting fillets, dipped in beaten egg, breaded in cracker crumbs and pan-fried. Oh, they were tasty – tender, moist and sweet.

Last night the remaining filets went into a seafood gumbo, accompanied by some purchased shrimp from Alex’s Seafood Market in Pirates Beach. Holmes had made broth from the fish carcasses the day before. That served as the gumbo base.

I offered to make the roux. No iron skillet was available but I remembered that some people make roux in the microwave. Google came to my rescue with a plethora of instructions. Like many cooks, I read several and made an amalgam of them.

During the preparation I learned that it’s important to stir the flour and butter at two minute intervals, rather than letting it cook the entire six or seven minutes before stirring. I also learned that when following instructions for microwaved things, one should allow for differences in power. The microwave here is less powerful than I'm used to, so six minutes was not long enough, which was fortunate because that gave me an opportunity for frequent stirring.

When the roux was light mahogany in color, Holmes dumped the chopped onion, pepper and celery into the bowl. Just as if we had made the roux in an iron skillet, the vegetables sizzled and softened in the hot roux.

Holmes took it from there. It was mighty tasty.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer