My days in the wet, green yonder

Hey all, brace yourselves for a long and winding post. This last week I had the rare opportunity to get away from life in general - what a luxury 3 days of camping proved to be without having had 2 consecutive days away from work in the past 4 months or so. I left my apartment on Tuesday, head swimming with fantasies of conquering all manner of small animals to eat, and befriending the animals which were too large for me to conquer. WELL...raccoons stole our couscous, the bay was closed to bivalve shellfish harvest, and a family of 5 otters decimated my crab traps throughout our island retreat. Aside from all of that, a good time was had. With fiddleheads far past their prime and the aforementioned crabtastrophes, I was relegated to fishing and cooking the scant food we came with. Angling from shore also limited my catch, however I found that there were plenty of white spotted greenlings to be had, and so we ate like kings. Here's what I had to work with:
-random herbs (scallions, dill, cilantro)
-onion + garlic
-lemons + limes
-1 stick of butter
-veggies (corn, cukes, peppers, yams)
-flour
-beer + cider
-More fresh fish than you can shake a broken crab trap at

Here's a couple of ways we got along while camping:

Fried greenling with cider sauce

-4 greenling (or whatever) fillets
-enough flour to dredge the fillets
-1 lemon
-salt+pepper
-3 tbsp butter
-small handfull of dill
-1/2 cup of strongbow cider

Get your pan nice and hot, crack open a strongbow, and squeeze half of the lemon over your fillets. Rub the fish with salt and pepper on both sides, then dredge the fish in the flour. Throw the butter into the pan, and once it has melted lay in the fillets (skin side down first). Make sure that you shake any excess flour off of the fish, lest your butter turn to goo. It should only take 3 minutes or so for the fish to brown nicely, and once they do you can carefully flip them over. After both sides are browned remove the fish from the pan and set aside. Continue to brown the butter for a minute or so, and then squeeze in the othe half of lemon and pour in some strongbow (or your dry apple cider of choice). Continue to reduce the sauce in the pan, then season with salt and pepper once it has reached your desired consistency. Tear up the dill (have you ever tried mincing shit with a pocket knife?) throw it into the sauce, then pour some goodness all over your fish.

Roasted greenling with cilantro and garlic

-3 whole greenling (or whatever)
-3 cloves of garlic, sliced
-1 lemon
-5 tbsp butter
-handful of cilantro
-salt+pepper

Gut and scale your fish but leave the head on - this just makes hanging them over a fire much easier. Squeeze about a quarter of your lemon's juice all over them and then rub those sucks with salt (inside and out). Hang them a few inches over a steady fire - high enough to not be touched by the flame too much, but low enough to still get pretty hot. While they're cooking, you can make the sauce which is a simple variation of a beurre meuniere. Brown your butter and garlic in a medium-hot pan - wait for the milk solids to darken, but not to blacken! Once you've got some nicely browned butter just squeeze in the rest of your lemon juice as well as the torn up cilantro. Season with salt and pepper to your liking, take it off of the heat and check on the doneness of your fish. I can't give a very accurate cooking time for this kind of thing, of course it depends on a multitude of factors such as size of the fish, heat at the height of cooking, uh...fortitude of certain oriental trade winds etc etc. Once it's done the thickest part of the fish should be firm to the touch and the heads are no longer...uh...slimy (a highly professional measure, no doubt).

Slide your fish off of their pikes, cover in sauce, and get ready to choke on some tasty, tasty bones.

I used what I caught, but I realize that greenling isn't exactly a typical market fish. It's pretty mild in flavor, not as delicate as sole but not as firm as rockfish. They're good eats all around, and I think that a couple of small tilapia would taste just as nice cooked either way. Alright, no sassy ending today, I'm going outside before another goddamn lake's worth of water gets rained onto my place of residence.