Spoonbill Recipes?

[olhillbilly]

Any of you gals got any favs?

Sides just fryin em up like catfish. which works for me.

Here's one i found>>>

Baked Paddlefish, White River

2 lb paddlefish steaks or fillets
1 x garlic clove cut
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
4 tbl butter or margarine
4 slc raw bacon
1 can tomatoes - (15 oz)
1 med onion chopped
1 x green pepper chopped
1 x bay leaf crumbled
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper


Rub fish with cut garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Place in a buttered casserole dish, and lay bacon strips across top.
Mix remaining ingredients, and pour over and around fish. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

Dont sound too bad.

[buzzard]

Gonna post some of the ones I've found on the internet. Some fancy, some plain. But FIRST I'm gonna post what a spoonbill is, LOL! One ugly fish, that's fer sure.



From a Montana site:

Modern paddlefish (Polyodon Spathula) are classic examples of millions of years of ecological fine-tuning. Paddlefish have adapted remarkably to their environment since they were introduced into the Yellowstone River in 1963. They may be the oldest big-game animal surviving in North America!

Paddlefish skin is tough, smooth and scaleless except for the upper portion of its tail. The most striking feature of the paddler is its elongated paddle-shaped snout which is used as an antenna for detecting concentrations of food and helping the fish react to the changing water current. Adult paddlefish can weigh from 60 to 120 pounds! The state record paddlefish was 142 pounds, caught in 1973.

**Mississippi paddlefish, American paddlefish, Spoonbill, Spoonbill cat, Shovelbill cat, Duckbill cat, Shovelnose cat, Spoonbill sturgeon, Spadefish, Boneless cat, Freshwater sturgeon, Chattanooga beluga, American sturgeon, Freshwater whale. People refer to it as a "catfish", but it's more closely related to the sturgeon. ***American Spoonbill Caviar - The spoonbill, also called the paddlefish, is a peculiar, prehistoric fish that thrives in the waters of the Mississippi. It is a member of the sturgeon family, so its caviar is like that produced by the more famous Caspian Sea sturgeon, albeit at a much more affordable price. The spoonbill's caviar is quite delectable; rich, robust and creamy with small silvery pearls


CHARACTERISTICS: This fish’s long, paddle-shaped snout accounts for about one-third of its total body length. The snout helps to stabilize the fish as it swims, and it also contains specialized cells that assist in detecting the plankton swarms upon which this species feeds. The skin is smooth. Small individuals are pink on the back and white on the venter; for larger individuals around 10 to 12 inches, the body color changes to bluish gray on the back and cream on the venter. The eyes are tiny compared to the rest of the head and body. On the underside of the snout are two minute barbels in front of a large, toothless mouth. When viewed through the mouth, the gills are large and show the many closely spaced filaments that trap microscopic food. On each side, a gill cover extends posteriorly, ending in a long, pointed flap. The skeleton is composed of cartilage rather than bone. The end of the verterbral column extends into the upper lobe of the heterorcercal tail, much as a shark’s does.

ADULT SIZE: 3.9 to 5.9 ft (1.2 to 1.8 m). The state angling record (52 lb, 12 oz) was caught below Wilson Dam on the Tennessee River in 1982. Currently, paddlefish caught in Alabama must be immediately released unharmed.

[buzzard]

Royal Amandine Pan-fried Paddlefish

1 1/2 lb. Paddlefish streaks or fillets, cut into serving pieces not more than 1" thick.

1/4 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/4 C. cornmeal

1/2 C. butter

parsley



Wipe fish pieces dry with paper toweling. Roll pieces in a mixture of flower, cornmeal and salt. Melt butter in a shallow fry pan or electric skillet. Place Paddlefish pieces in the pan and cook slowly until brown on one side. Turn carefully and brown the other side. Cooking time will take 10 to 15 minutes. Remove pieces to a warm platter. Add lemon juice to the hot butter drippings, blend thoroughly and pour over Paddlefish Garnish with parsley flakes and serve at once with Sauce.



Sauce:1/2 C. Butter

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1.2 C. slivered almonds

1/4 tsp. salt

Dash of black pepper



Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add almonds and sauté over low heat to a delicate golden brown color. Then add remaining ingredients and shake pan over heat for two minutes. Serve with fried Paddlefish.

Variations: Toast the almonds before adding to melted butter. Do not sauté. Add remaining ingredients, blend and heat carefully

[buzzard]

Paddlefish Stew

1 lb. raw cubed paddlefish

3 bacon slices, chopped

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 16-oz. can whole potatoes, drained and halved

1/8 tsp. thyme leaves

1/4 C. ketchup

1 tsp. Worcestershire

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 16-oz. can tomatoes



In a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, cook bacon until just limp; Add onion and cook until onion is browned. Stir in potatoes, tomatoes with their liquid, ketchup, Worcestershire, pepper and thyme. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add fish and cook about 10 minutes longer or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, stirring often. Makes 4 servings

[buzzard]

Paddlefish Strips


Paddlefish strips
1 onion
1 red/green bell pepper
few stalks of celery
to taste garlic
to taste salt and pepper
to taste cayenne pepper

Mix it all together. Cover and bake at 425 for 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and serve over rice with some tabasco and a good loaf of french bread.

[buzzard]

A site for 3 Alarm Paddlefish Jambalaya

mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/tv/recipes/spoonbill.pdf

[CuPcAkE]

I don't know what my family does when they cook theirs, but I FINALLY actually tried it this past Labor Day at our fish fry and it is actually pretty good! It isn't real "fishy" tasting!

Better dig those recipes out though...opening day is this coming up Saturday!! ;D

[buzzard]

Another link with more on the spoonbill (boy that's still one ugly fish, ROFL)

www.gatehousenewsservice.com/regional_news/southwest/missouri/x1637133676

Guess that "bill" on it's mouth would work good fer paddling butts on misbehaving kids.

[buzzard]

One thing I'm reading in my search for recipes for the Paddlefish is that there are two "meats" on the fish. The white meat, which is very good and then there is a "dark" meat, red/brown in color. Every thing I am reading on this issue, the people say be sure to clean ALL the "dark" (red/brown) meat off the white meat and discard it. They said it smells and tastes bad and smells even worse when you're cooking it and that leaving it on the white meat will make the white meat taste equally bad. One favorite way to cook it seems to be a beer batter, then deep fry it like catfish, so I'll look up a recipe for that and post it.

[buzzard]

Here's a place where people talk about how they cook Paddlefish.

www.nefga.org/forum/fish-recipes/6799-paddlefish.html

[buzzard]

BEER-BATTER FRIED FISH

6 fish fillets (about 3/4 lb. each)
Flour
2 c. unsifted flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 c. beer
1/2 c. salad oil
Oil for deep frying

Coat fish with flour; set aside. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, beer and 1/2 cup oil; beat with rotary beater until smooth. Dip fish into batter, allowing excess to drip into bowl. Fry in deep hot 375 degree oil until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

[CuPcAkE]

The red meat is BAD! Your reading correctly...you only want the white meat and it is very soft...it seems to just melt in your mouth!

[Sinker]

CC, yer right about th redmeat. If ya aint gonna take that off, ya bout justs well eat it right there in th boat. No dressin, an no cookin!

[tellyfoneman]

It blows my mind, that a 4 year old thread is still getting viewed nearly everyday.

[buzzard]

I know, kinda cool.

[olhillbilly]

Cuz we got the best spoonbill recipes anywhere.

Feel free to add any new ones ya got, or ya found.

[olhillbilly]

A new recipe from my buddy Earl from catfishoutlaws.proboards.com

Learned a new recipe for spoonbill ! He cuts his into finger size strips. Then boils a big pot of water. Put in all the ingredients that you would if you were boiling shrimp ( Zatarains , Old bay or whichever you use , and lemon slices and some sweet onion) and then boil the spoonbill just like you would the shrimp ( around two or three minutes) and he says the fish will get the same texture and almost taste the same as shrimp !

catfishoutlaws.proboards.com

[buzzard]

sounds like that would be good.

[olhillbilly]

In response to a reader who wanted recipes for fixing roe. I found a couple links for caviar. I'm just guessing that's what ya wanted?

honest-food.net/2009/12/02/how-to-make-caviar/

whatscookingamerica.net/caviar.htm

www.fairwaymarket.com/scrambled-eggs-paddlefish-roe/

This one had me picturing breaking a bowl full of spoonbill eggs. ;D

I found all these and more just by searching for "paddlefish roe recipes". Seems like there's a lot of em out there.

[tellyfoneman]

Just remember, In Missouri, it is illegal to keep the roe.