I've been at the cabin again and herring graced the lines a couple times so Ma and I have a few herring fillets to give a hot butter bath. These are the fresh-water herring found in Lake Superior. On the north shore they are called blue-fins and the fish is a delacacy served in the better restaraunts up there. Herring meals are not cheap, often running around $20 a plate.
Since I have figured out how to catch these fiesty fish I can cook my own. After filleting the herring I freeze them and when we are ready to eat them I rinse the fillets well after thawing and removing the fat layer and coat them with a simple flour , salt, and pepper coating and fry them in butter. I don't fry them real hard, nor do I fry them very long. The meat on herring is very transluscent before cooking and stays that way after and while cooking, so you need to check the doneness with a fork to see if the meat will flake. If it does, its done enough.
The trick with herring is to remove the fat layer on the skin side of the fillet. To do that I freeze the fillets flat on a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. When the fillets a re solid hard, I turen the tap water on hot and run it until it is as hot as it will get. Hold a fillet at each end and run the hot water on the fat side until the fat greys, then lay the fillets on the cookie sheet until all are done this way, then use a tablespoon and gently scrape the fat layer off the meat. Six fillets will take about two minutes of your time. On the plate, you'll throw walleye right out the window to the dogs after eating herring.
This trip also saw lake trout and steelhead action but both have closed seasons so they had to go back in the water. Of the six steelhead, the largest went a nice 31" and the smallest a mere 27".One of the lakers went arount 13 pounds while all of the others scaled about 8 pounds....nice fish with a ton of fight. Deer in the cabin yard all day and all night, wolves did some howling for us one evening. We had a mother and two pup grey fox joins us for two nights and on another night a big red fox showed up. e have three lakes on the property and the larger had an otter for a day...the first we've had the pleasure of seeing up there.
I have the cabin locked up now so the trips north won't happen again now until next spring unless we go up and do a motel....something we have been known to do just to do something.
