Crappie Florentine

 

It's time to eat. Enough already of all this "how-to", "where-to", and "who with" stuff. It's time to belly-up to the table, and take a bite. 

I hate more than anything the way frozen packages of fish pile up in the freezer. It's a pet peeve of mine. Frozen fish has a way of working its way to the bottom of a freezer, and not re-appearing again for months, even years, later. Eat it now, or suffer the "burned" consequences later. God did not intend for people to eat freezer-burned fish, but it happens. 

There must be fifty ways to fry a fish, or lose your lover, but in the end they're both fried. Don't get me wrong, I love "fried," but towards the end of the season I am susceptible to alternative suggestions. How about "Crappie Florentine", for example? Until about a week ago it did not exist; it does now.

My mother was one of the five best domestic cooks I have ever known. It was a surprising fact on several levels. Her Little Dixie, down-in-the-oil-patch upbringing did not indicate such a possibility, but she was a smart, brave girl that would try anything on the stove at least once, and Dad hauled her all around the world two or three times. Everywhere they stopped, she picked up something new to try out on her family. 

Because we lived always for years near an ocean (sometimes surrounded by one), Mom cooked the things Dad and I brought home from the sea. Often, that was flounder, as good a white-meated, mildly flavored fish as you will ever eat. 

Halibut is a subspecies of flounder, and vice versa. So is sole. Crappie will not beat flounder for delectability, nor will flounder beat crappie. 

Somewhere, Mom had picked up a recipe for "Flounder Florentine," and it became a huge family favorite. I am guessing at this, but I would guess that the word "Florentine" refers to the place, Florence, in Italy, and the cheese the recipe calls for would seem to add proof to that surmise. I'm trying to think of a single Italian dish that does not call for cheese, and I can't. 

I found her old recipe, written down, for me, on an index card while going through an old box of her letters the other day. Can you believe it? I mean having a box of letters, with actual stamps? Today? It was another time; one where I used to live. 

Anyway, here is Loys' "Crappie Florentine"; from another time, and another place. 

The ingredients, for eight: 4 packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained. Two pounds fresh crappie fillets. Well, yeah, thaw them if you have to. 6 tablespoons chopped onion. 4 tablespoons of butter or margarine. 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour. 1/2 tablespoon of salt. Same of pepper. 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. 3 cups fat-free milk. 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese. 1/2 teaspoon paprika.

Sprinkle the spinach on the bottom of a pre-greased, "good-sized" baking dish. Top with fillets. 

In a saucepan, sauté the onion in butter until tender. Stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg until blended. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Pour mixture over the fillets. Lastly, sprinkle with Parmesan and paprika. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. 

Sure, you ought to have something green on that plate. Mom always did, and usually some fresh frozen, whole kernel corn. But that was another time, another place. 

People put stamps on letters, and walked down dusty roads barefooted to mail them. Sometimes on Saturday. Can you imagine?

© 2013 Conrad M. Vollertsen