Fish tacos (trout, soft wheat tortillas)

1 C flour

2 T lard

3/4 C water

2 t baking powder

1/2 kosher salt

They needed something. 1 jalapeño diced and added to tomato and onion. 

The only sauce is sour cream and lime juice on avocado and on the fish.

You cannot buy anything so good as this. The fish and the tacos right out of the pan. No dreadfully overcooked fish, no messing around with pre-made tortillas.

Salad; trout, corn, avocado, penne, pecans, mayonnaise-cream dressing

Baked trout, tomato salad

"I came here to this store specifically to look your trout square in the eyes."

Both men behind the counter laughed. What a weirdo, they must be thinking.

"These fish on ice look happy to be here."

The men are so amused with me. Apparently they usually only get Cranky McCrankpots around there. Or maybe they both appreciate a guy who knows exactly what he came for, that's different too. 

That was two days ago, it looked better then.

Ugh, ya got me, and my guts spilled out.

The stuffing inside the fish keeps it moist should I overdo it, and the salad share ingredients but not completely. What happens to the mint that cooks inside the fish is completely different from the mint that stays fresh and touched with dressing, the corn changes in there with herbs too. 

Dressing made here.

The stuffing is ad hoc with ingredients on hand. It's like Chopped over here. And I must say it exceeds expectation. I held off tasting it because it is kind of gross inside there and when the flavors bloomed in my mouth so perfectly balanced with butter, vermouth, lemon, onion, sage, rosemary, black pepper, corn, mint, basil and shrimp. It was like an ace restaurant experience right there in my dining room. 

This is an excellent meal that I would be proud and pleased to serve anyone, even to someone who claims not to like seafood, for whatever reason, I believe this can change one's opinion.

If you would say, and I've heard this more times than is reasonable, "I do not eat seafood." Then I would shoot back at you, kindly of course, "It's freshwater trout. Not the sea, nanner nanner nanner so eat it!

At the table.

A bloke I know showed me how to do this, so adroitly he didn't miss a single tiny bone, and I go, "Oh, Man, that's like Jerry the cat, or more probably Tom, in the cartoon who picks through the trash bins with the lid to the bin like a waiter's serving tray." 

I've not been able to do it that well.

Trout, dressed tomatoes

Trout is seasoned on both sides with salt/pepper/cayenne then pan-fried in olive oil for only a few minutes. The cook stands there and observes the change inside the cavity to determine when to flip and to remove.

These fish looked so good in the ice cabinet, I told the guy they looked happy to be there, and he roared laughing. It wasn't that funny. I guess they just don't hear many stupid things there at the fish counter. 

A sauce is prepared with olive oil, grated onion, grated garlic, diced tomato, salt/pepper, then butter and lime topped out with chopped parsley -- a sauce vierge, if you like, because I am a virgin, I mean, because the sauce is considered un-messed with. 

Usually, if you are more careful than myself, more delicate, adept, clever, and patient, you can cut along the dorsal line, then across at the head and the tail, cut off the fins, then lift off the filet from the skeletal ribs. Then the same to the other side. The result is two boneless filets and a perfect set of fishbones with head and tail, like you see in the cartoons when the cat is rooting around the garbage cans holding a lid to a garbage can as if it were a restaurant tray and with a napkin draped over his bent elbow, and picking out a fish skeleton as if it were a rare find and a great delicacy. It's fun! The fun is imitating the cartoon. Then you can triumphantly wave around the entire fish skeleton like a cartoon alley cat. Impress your kids. But my fish carcasses  didn't pull off that well this time and quite a lot of tiny bones were left in the filets that had to be dealt with one at a time. No big deal, it was just a constant reminder of my failure at being a cartoon.