Share and Relish, Fresh Lake Erie Walleye

I know I am so far behind in posting recipes!  My friend Georgia is much better and keeping up the recipe sharing.  Please make sure you go check out her delicious looking Be-Well Soup and the rest of the good food she's posted!

Ron and Larry have been out on Ron's boat fishing most weekends.  The guys have been catching the best of what Lake Erie has to offer; perch, white bass and my favorite, walleye.  Here is a picture of one of the walleye that they recently caught.  This baby was our dinner Friday night.

From fresh caught walleye to beautiful fillets.

On the top left is one of the fish cheeks.  I guess it's a delicacy.  Ron and Larry got to eat those since they are the ones that caught the fish!  Fair is fair.

I took the filets and cut them into pieces about four inches long.  I was baking half of the filets and frying the other half.

Let's start with the baked fish.  I filled one bowl with milk (2% milk because that's what we drink!) and I filled one bowl with Panko break crumbs.  What I found out later is that Panko break crumbs are really made for deep frying.  I should have stuck with a bread crumbs or crushed corn flakes as a coating.  The panko were ok in the baked version, but next time I would use something else.

Anyway, here are my two bowls.

Real simple, I put the filet into the milk then into the Panko to coat it.  Since my baking sheets are all rusted and crappy, I cover them with aluminum foil before baking anything.  Once the filets were put through both bowls, I lined them up on the baking sheet.

I then melted two tablespoons of butter and drizzled the butter over the filets.  Then, baked at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, until filets flaked apart easily.  Here are the filets ready to go into the oven.

Since I didn't think to make this dinner into a blog until I was in the middle of making dinner, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked.  And, we were all drooling so much, so as soon as the food hit the table, we were chowing down!  I could have taken pictures of four full bellies, but that would not have looked as good on the blog.  Trust me, it was a fabulous dinner!

The second half of the fish was cooked the good way.  Fried in Crisco (or lard!)

This time I needed three bowls.  From left to right, flour with salt and pepper in it, three eggs whisked, another bowl of Panko bread crumbs.

Easy peasy here.  Coat the fish filets in each bowl, going from left to right.

I placed all of the filets on a dish until I had all of them breaded.  In a heavy cast iron skillet, I heated up about 1/2" of Crisco.  Here is the fish just placed in the hot oil.

Fry until both sides are golden brown.

I wish I would have made the time to take pictures of the finished product but like I said, we were in too much of a hurry to eat.  You gotta believe me when I tell you, the fish was AWESOME!

I had also cooked some halushki and Ron made some corn on the cob.  I need to make both of those things again and show you how to make a couple of our favorite things.

For now, fresh walleye from Lake Erie.  It doesn't get much better than that!