Recipe: Pan-Fried Panfish

When I was growing up, we ate a lot of panfish we caught from the lake.  Unfortunately, it was almost always dredged in wheat flower and fried in soybean oil.  When I first started experimenting with paleo and lacto-paleo ways of eating and started eating them without flour, my family looked at me like I was a total fucking weirdo.  Truth be told, I love fish and don't need to flour or fry them, but I was interested to see if I could make a paleo-friendly version of it, especially since I live in Wisconsin, land of the Friday fish fry.  This was the result:

Pan-Fried Panfish
This is a simple recipe that I've been tweaking recently for bluegills or other sunfish.  I say "tweaking" because I've been having a hard time getting a good level of salt (in my case potassium chloride, which is marketed as a "salt substitute" but for the record is still a salt).  This is the best version so far:

1. Fillets of bluegill (I typically get around 15-20 with this recipe)
2. 1/4+ refined coconut oil (you can use unrefined coconut oil if you really like coconut; start with 1/4 cup but keep extra on standby)
3. 1/2 cup arrowroot powder (you could probably use coconut flour... but I hate coconut flour so I don't)
4. 1 tablespoon paprika
5. 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
6. 1/4 teaspoon salt (table salt or any of the fancy salts paleo eaters like, like Himalayan pink salt or sea salt; if you're reducing your sodium like me you can use potassium chloride OR omit)
7. Black pepper to taste (I just dash it on afterward)

Heat a frying pan over medium heat with 1/4 cup coconut oil in it.  Mix all the dry ingredients except the pepper together in a bowl or plastic bag and mix thoroughly.

Once the coconut oil is melted and hot, dredge the fillets a few at a time and lay in the oil.  I typically just put two or three in the plastic bag and shake, but if you don't want the waste just dredge them in the bowl by laying them in the mix on each side.  Let fry for about a minute before flipping and getting the other side.  When both sides are done, I put them on a plate layered with newspaper to catch the extra oil.

Continue until either the dry mix or the fillets are gone.

If you run out of oil:
I keep oil on standby and when it starts getting low I add it a tablespoon at a time.  This recipe is designed to reduce waste as a person who doesn't fry in oil often.  If you regularly deep fry things, you can always just do it that way and strain the oil for later use.

If you run out of dry mix and you only have a couple fillets left:
I usually just add a little arrowroot powder, paprika, and salt to stretch it out.

I eat this plain, but if you want tartar sauce it's ridiculously easy to make a paleo version.  Just make mayonnaise (there are loads of recipes for this online, just replace any generic vegetable or soybean oil with a paleo-friendly oil like light olive oil or avocado oil and get rid of any sugar people sometimes add; AllRecipes has this one that's already friendly) and mix it with dill pickle relish (again, check ingredients for sugary stuff and other odd ingredients).