Triggerfish with Toasted Pecan Butter

Wow friends, I knew I had been a bad blogger lately but I didn’t realize how bad! I’m sorry.

Perhaps in order to make it up to the masses, I’ll share a creation I’ve been holding for a little while.

CloseUp-Triggerfish

You see, a while back (about 2 year ago) my parents stopped at a nearby mobile seafood market and picked up a variety of things, including Triggerfish, which ended up in my kitchen. Having never done anything with this fish before, I just did what I knew best – sauteed it and covered it with a delicious sauce of butter, wine, lemon and capers. It was delicious – so I shared it with all of you wonderful people.

Then something crazy happened. I realized that I was not the only one who was at a loss for how to prepare Triggerfish. Because people were Googling their hearts out for recipes. And coming to my little blog here.

Now, this blog is a hobby for me right now – my work has been crazy lately and that’s fine. But I get really excited when I get 30+ visits in a day. Well, my Triggerfish recipe started picking up steam a while back – 20-30 hits a day. Then the husband (who also geeks out a little over stats) wanted to see how many I had overall.

As of today, that little recipe I whipped up has over 10,000 views. Which is crazy to me – but obviously, y’all want some Triggerfish!

Well, it’s your lucky day because I aim to please. Hopefully you like this one as much as the last…let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see – I love hearing from my readers!

Triggerfish with Toasted Pecan Butter (Serves 2 / 9 WW pts. per serving)

Ingredients

8 oz. Triggerfish, cut into 2 portions

2 Tbsp. fat-free milk

1 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. peanut oil

1 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp. reduced calorie margarine

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Cayenne pepper, salt, pepper

Lemon

Just a reminder that the skin on Triggerfish can be pretty tough – so I score it before cooking with it to keep the fish from curling too much.

Heat your oven to 350. Layer your chopped pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.

In a shallow dish, mix together flour, a dash of cayenne, a dash of salt, and a dash of pepper.

In another shallow dish, add milk. Dip fish fillet in the milk and then dredge in flour mixture.

Dredge and Saute_Triggerfish with Pecan Butter

Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add fish and saute 4-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.

While fish is cooking, melt butter in a small skillet. Add pecans and a pinch of salt and a pinch of cayenne. Stir and pour over fillets. Voila – super easy and delicious meal in under 30 minutes!

Triggerfish with Toasted Pecan Butter

Hope y’all have a great weekend!

Spicy Sauteed Triggerfish with a Lemon Wine Sauce

Happy Thursday everybody!

Normally, Thursday isn’t all that exciting – but this is the Thursday before a long weekend! While I might not have incredibly exciting plans, it’s still a long weekend. Which means next week is a short week.

Next week is also the final week of my husband’s incredibly demanding and strict study schedule. So on Saturday afternoon – I get him back. So I get to be excited that it’s Thursday!

Can I get an “amen”?

…crickets…

Okay then, moving right along!

So I know I have mentioned to you several times how much I love seafood. Well my parents discovered a great little place to get fresh seafood – a man and his wife drive up to Memphis each week from the Mississippi coast with a big trailer full of lots of good, fresh stuff. Even selections that are hard to find in grocery stores!

Well, my dad stopped by to grab some smoked tuna dip (Y-U-M) and the man was packing up to leave. So he just “donated” a few items to him. Fortunately for me, my parents were leaving town, so I inherited some fresh, delicious fish to play with.

Like Triggerfish. Crickets again? Exactly.

Now, it’s tough to find Triggerfish recipes out there. But I did read that it’s a meaty, rich fish – similar to Grouper, but with a buttery flavor, like Lobster.

So you know what that says to me? Butter. Wine. Capers.

Do we really need more in life? I honestly think I could eat capers out of the jar…oh wait, I already do. And wine…well, really people?

If you can’t find Triggerfish – I think that Grouper would be a great fish substitution for this recipe – perhaps adjusting for cooking time.

Now this is a little higher in WW points for the main dish (about 9 – guess-timating since I couldn’t locate nutritional info.), but I just paired it with a few slices of bread and some brown rice and it made for a light and luxurious weeknight meal.

Triggerfish with a Spicy Lemon-Wine Sauce (serves 2)

2 Triggerfish filets, about 6-7 oz. each (mine had skin on – so I left it and it was fine)

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce

4 Tbsp. reduced-calorie margarine

1/4 cup white wine

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. capers

Heat 2 Tbsp. margarine in a large skillet over medium heat.

Salt and pepper your fillets. I scored the skin (just a few little superficial slices) to prevent curling.

Add fillets to melted butter and saute about 3-4 minutes, skin side up. Flip and sprinkle “meat” side with a few dashes Tabasco.

Cook another 3-4 minutes, and flip once more. Cook 2-3 more minutes until fish is cooked through and both sides have a light brown color. Set in a medium baking dish and add to oven on low heat to keep warm.

Add remaining margarine (if needed) to skillet and melt. Reduce heat to medium low.

Add white wine, garlic, caper and lemon juice.

Cook for about 2 minutes, until simmering lightly and sauce thickens a little.

Oh and if you have to open a whole bottle of white wine and don’t know what to do with some of the “excess” – I’m sure I can help you think of something…

Now, remove fish from oven. Plate your fish and pour sauce on top of each fillet.

 

Now, dig in! The rice and bread did a great job of soaking up the excess sauce…which was total yumminess…

Thanks Mom and Dad – next time you should get your new buddies to “donate” four fillets and maybe you’ll get a free dinner out of it…

Thanks for reading – and just a reminder, if you have tried any of the recipes on my blog, please leave me a comment with your raves/rants/thoughts – I’d love to hear feedback!