April 16, 2013 - A New Fish Recipe

Hey gang, Wanted to first send my heart-felt prayers to any of you in Boston or who have family in Boston. Yesterday was such a shock! God help our nation! If there are specifics that you would like me to pray, I am available. As we started yesterday with the theme of NEW, that's what we'll continue throughout the week. I am always thankful in the mornings for a new day. Anyone else? A new set of opportunities and a whole day in which to create makes me smile. Last Friday, I created a new recipe that I would like to share. You may know that my family loves Basa fish. (not bass) It's VERY mild and bakes or fries well. Of course you know that as I don't eat starch or sugar, italian bread crumbs (which I always used for breading and some flour) were not on the agenda. Therefore, I have not fried fish in over 2 years. Friday afternoon the grand daughters were coming for dinner and you know Kailey eats like NIna, but those girls LOVE my fried Basa. So I started scheming. I had been in a cooking mode that day anyway as I made a batch of ketchup and BBQ sauce for the months ahead of grilling. (all natural and sugar free - yum!) Those of us HCG folks know that melba toast is our only "bread/cracker" substitute. Basically it tastes like cardboard, but has the crunch. I took 2 boxes of Melba toast and ground them in the food processor until fine. I then added 1 cup of almond flour, 3-4 tbs of Italian seasoning, 1 tsp each of sea salt, garlic salt and onion powder. Then I gave about eight twists with the black pepper and added some tarragon, which is a sweet herb I use with chicken and fish. I prepared the 2 bags of basa by cutting each fillet in half and dredging through the breadcrumb mixture a couple of times and then placed the fish pieces on a plate for about 45 minutes. (one of the secrets to frying good fish is to bread them and allow to dry so the bread crumbs can absorb the moisture and won't splatter) I used a large skillet and about 1/2 inch of wesson and olive oil. You'll be ready to fry when a toothpick inserted in the hot oil bubbles around the wood. (placing the fish in early could result in extra oil and soggy crust). Allow to really crisp on one side before turning as almond flour doesn't stick as well, but the melba toast helps with this. The fillets were amazing and without sugar, white flour, or corn meal. YUM. You should definitely try this one. Have an amazing day, PK