Cajun Fried Flounder

Ingredients:

Freshly Caught Flounder
Peanut Oil
Milk
Tony Chachere's cajun fish fry mix

Step 1:

The first thing you're going to need, obviously, is a filet knife. These are ultra sharp and ultra thin and bendable and that's all pretty important if you plan on getting a good filet off of a fish. First, make a cut down the middle of the fish. This will act as a guide.

Notice where I started the cut. An interesting thing about flounder is very little of their body is "head" and guts. It's simple to feel above the eyes and feel the skull. Below the eyes it's soft in a small area. That's the guts. Unless you're a skull and guts type of person, you want to cut around these.

Step 2:

Now, insert the filet knife into the existing cut until it hits bone and turn it sideways. Now press the side of the knife into the bone so the knife kind of bends a little bit and start moving the knife towards the edge. Just work it towards the edge and the meat should slip right off. You'll end up with something like this.

Step 3:

Now you want to repeat it on the other side. Notice how I curved around the part where the guts are. You can see just a little bit of blood right on the edge of the guts which means I got just about as close as possible. Again, it's really easy to know where to cut just by feel. The meat is nice and firm - the guts are soft feeling under the skin.

Step 4:

Now you want to flip the flounder over and do the exact same thing.

Step 5:

That's a skinny flounder, now!

Step 6:

Of course, now we have four beautiful boneless filets but they have skin attached to them. This just will not do. Lie the filets skin-side down on the cutting board and insert your filet knife parallel to the board. Hold onto one end of the skin and while pressing the filet knife down (it should be bent and pressed up against the board) just work from one end to the other. You'll end up with four nice filets like this, even if they are currently spotted with bits of scale and whatnot.

Step 7:

Now you'll want to rinse the filets under some running water in your sink. Just sit them down on a paper towel and pat them dry.

Step 8:

Flounder is a very white, mild fish meat but I like to get rid of any lingering "fishy" funk. The way to do this is to soak the filets in milk. I usually just toss it in the fridge for about half an hour.

Step 9:

You may as well go ahead and get your fish fry ready. I use Tony Chachere's cajun fish fry mix. It's just a bit spicy and crisps up perfectly. It's good stuff.

Step 10:

Now once your filets have soaked for a little while just pull them out of the milk and coat them evenly in the fry mix.

Step 11:

I personally use a deep fryer and preheat the oil to 375 degrees. I prefer peanut oil for fish as it has a very high smoke point. If you don't have a deep fryer you can easily pan fry these filets in a hot pan for around 8 minutes until golden brown. Deep frying is just easier though since I can dump them in the fryer and set a timer. Either way works.

Remove from the fryer and sit on some paper towels for a moment. Transfer to plate. Enjoy some delicious white, lightly flakey flounder meat in a crispy cajun exterior. Pick whatever sides sound good to you and maybe some tartar sauce and enjoy.