What Should I Do With This?

Many folks will return home from VBL with frozen fish fillets. Pictured here is a nice northern pike, expertly cleaned and deboned by Gord Bastable for my dining convience.

Pike are good-eating and I regularly serve them up at home. They are similar to a walleye, but have a bit more flavor. Compared to the robust flavor of salmon, pike is mild. I prefer it seasoned-up and recently found a recipe that is a killer in this regard. My dinner guests raved about it and I’m going to share this one with you.

Grilled Northern With Herb & Caper Vinaigrette*
(T=tablespoon, t=teaspoon)

MARINADE
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T lemon juice
1 T chopped, fresh tarragon
1 t minced garlic
.5 t grated lemon rind
3 T olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper
Pike cut into six portions (one 24-26 inch pike will be fine)

VINAIGRETTE
2 T red wine vinegar
1 T chopped chives
1 T chopped, fresh tarragon
1 T capers, rinsed and chopped
1 t Dijon mustard
.25 cup olive oil
Salt and fresh ground pepper

STEPS
1. Whisk together marinade ingredients (except fish) in a bowl and let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Whisk together vinaigrette ingredients. Put this off to the side for now.

3. Spread the marinade over the fish and allow this to stand at room temp for .5 hour.

4. Preheat your grill to medium-high. Oil the grate (if you have one for vegetables/fish, use it).
Place the fish on the BBQ and grill for about three minutes, gently flip and grill for three more minutes. Remove from grill, drizzle with vinaigrette and serve.

This dish, along with a salad and a side or two, will serve four. Your guests will be pleased.

*Source: Food and Drink Magazine, Early Summer 2010, p.170

8 thoughts on “What Should I Do With This?”

  2. Professor
    Reply

    Hi Kurt…I'm with you. In fact, I prefer pike over walleye no matter how I prepare them. The flavor is simply better. And you get much more meat on the fillets, even with the pike's y-bones removed. What's not to like?

  5. Andy
    Reply

    Gord is the fillet master. The only thing more entertaining then watching him fillet a pike is watching him fillet a sink full of bull perch.

  6. Andy
    Reply

    O.K. did everyone miss the professor's red glove in the picture? I am making this recipe tonight with one suggested revision. I am using french pommery mustard. It's an amazingly good mustard with whole mustard seeds. The only problem? You will probably have to come visit the Middleton Mustard Museum to get it!

  7. Neil
    Reply

    It's not a red glove. It's the professor's red proboscis. It is a clever shot indeed.

    "What should I do with this?"

    A knife, cutting board, fillet of fish, and a sun burned proboscis.

    It's almost sadomasochistic.

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On behalf of the Boyes Group, I would like to pass on our sincere thanks for hosting the Muskie Madness Week and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at VBL and had a great time!! This was our 7th year on Eagle Lake and we have stayed at a few other lodges but VBL takes the cake hands down! You can definitely count us in for next year. I’m happy to see you post some of my pics, they turned out well. Thanks again Gord for a wonderful week of fishing and your stellar hospitality, you run a first class operation, we look forward to seeing you next year!

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