Baked Spicy Cornbreaded Striper (Smith Mountain Lake style)
Ingredients:
1lb. fresh Striper* filets - de-skinned, cleaned & patted dry
2 cups fresh cornbread (or equivalent of 3 cornbread muffins), crumbled
1/4 tsp. chili powder**
1/4 tsp. onion powder**
1/2 tsp. garlic powder**
1 tsp. curry powder (madras style)**
dash of salt**
tablespoon olive oil (to coat baking dish)
1 egg (wisked in small bowl for dredging)
To Prepare:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Using a paper towel, coat the interior of a medium glass baking dish with olive oil & set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the crumbled cornbread, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, curry powder & salt and mix thouroughly with a fork and set aside.
In a small bowl, with wisked egg - dredge each filet and then transfer to the cornbread mixture & generously coat each side then lay the filet onto the oiled baking dish. Continue this process with each filet, spacing about 1/4" apart from each filet.
When all the filets are dredged & transferred, use the remaining cornbread mixture to loosely cover all the filets in the baking dish. Tightly cover baking dish with aluminum foil and place into oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and continue to bake until filets are tender and cornbread is crispy.
To Plate:
Using a wide spatula, transfer fish to plate & garnish with slices of lemon and parsley or cilantro.
Substitutions:
* similar filets can be used - Catfish or Bass
** substitute of Old Bay or similar spice mix combination - 2 tsp total amount