Photoblogging Mother's Day family fish fry

The Durham Bull Pen family was at the coast over the weekend celebrating Mother's Day and hanging out with each other as a family. We decided a fish fry for Mother's Day lunch would be tasty.

My dad, ever the engineer, has his technique down to a T. So Sunday he did his thing with the fish frying, and I thought I'd snap a few pictures and share them.

First, he gets the oil going in his long-lived fry-daddy contraption on the screened-in porch. Screened-porch is best so the house doesn't smell like a fish-fry happened in it. Anyway, back to the basics. The oil must be 350 degrees. My mom lightly dusts the fish (we like flounder fillet best) with House Autry medium hot fish breader. Then the fish--not too many at once or the heat of the oil drops too low--go in. Once they are lightly browned, take the tongs and flip them over to make sure all sides are brown, then take them up. Wait for the oil to recover back to 350 degrees for the next batch.


Here he is with the fish:


Next a melon baller (not too small, not too large, he advises), to scoop out the hushpuppy batter (again, House Autry Mill hushpuppy mix). This blend he put some chopped jalapeno peppers into, but we had plain as well:


Hushpuppies are same deal as the fish, brown each side. They rise to the top when they are ready to take up. See, he knows what he's doing. Yum:


My mom fixed the cole slaw (hers is the best EVER, imho) and the tea. And also she fixed some steamed shrimp:


To top it all off, my niece and Mom made a lemon chiffon type of pie for dessert since she likes a lemon dessert with a fish dinner. It's not yellow, but it was deliciously very lemony:


The best thing about the fish and the hushpuppies is that they are not overly-battered or greasy. They are crispy and tasty. Better than anything I've ever been able to find at a restaurant!