Frying Fish by Flashlight

It's been a while since we posted a creative non-fiction piece. So, here's one by Shirley Banks.

“Hey, you guys, I can cook fish better than this,” I yelled out my trailer window to a group of strangers sitting around the next-door neighbour’s campfire.  I had just tasted a plate of rather greasily fried perch they’d kindly sent over.

“Then let’s see you cook tomorrow night, we’re going fishing again in the morning,” someone from the crowd challenged.

“I’ll just do that—and I’ll bring my own music too,” I retaliated through the open window before taking another gulp of Chardonnay.

I awoke the next morning at 7:00 a.m. in time to see a twenty-foot outboard pass the front window.  I promised to do WHAT?!

Around 8:00 that evening I reluctantly arrived on my neighbour’s deck armed with a cast-aluminum ‘friddle’, seasoned bread crumbs, a carton of eggs, oil, spatula, oven mitts and flashlight.  By 8:30 I’d exchanged my hostess’s music for local country singer, Joan Spaulding, Ray something-or-other had set out multiple containers of perch filets, someone had filled my wine glass and there seemed nothing for it but to start frying fish in the now pitch dark.

Peggy has been my neighbour at the Enchanted Hideaway Trailer Park for eighteen years and our park models sit, side-by-side, on the front row facing Lake Erie. That evening Venus was brilliant in the sky, the lake rippled with reflected moonlight, the breeze was warm and the bugs were no-shows. The park was peacefully quiet—well, except for our site which was rife with overblown fish sagas and the sound of tabs being pulled off beer cans. Bruce something-or-other was doing double-duty holding the flashlight, so I could just about see what I was cooking, and keeping my wine glass from going dry.

Sometime around 10:30, my hostess wandered over with her cell phone and mouthed “It’s your husband!”  John, still at home in Petrolia, tracked me down and now wanted to know why I would be frying fish at that hour on Peggy’s deck. He reminded me we had company arriving the next day and suggested I quit frying fish, shouting out windows and drinking Chardonnay. I didn’t need prompting to give up the life of camp cook, standing over a four-burner propane barbeque for two hours had done that and, yeah, maybe I should stay away from open windows, but give up Chardonnay?...hmmm.

My recipe for frying fish (perch, pickerel, sole, etc.) includes a lightly oiled hot griddle (frying pan), seasoned bread crumbs to which I have added a generous teaspoon of Italian seasoning, a healthy pinch of Cajun seasoning, celery salt, lemon pepper, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder and a sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.  Dip the filets into beaten eggs, coat them with the bread crumb mixture, place on hot griddle and turn once when the pan-side is lightly browned.  The guys LOVED it!

Shirley Banks retired after twenty-five years as Branch Manager of the Petrolia Library. She previously worked for "The Advertiser-Topic" newspaper and was compositor and book reviewer for "The Living Message" magazine, now "The Leaflet"  Shirley and husband, John, celebrated a fiftieth aniversary this year and believe their happy marriage is owed to John preferring their home in Petrolia year-round while Shirley prefers summers at the Enchanted Hideaway RV Park.