Page 120 - South Mississippi Living - May, 2022

SPORTS & OUTDOORS
story by John N. Felsher photo courtesy of One Thirty One Lameuse
ODD FISH MAKES TASTY DINING PREPARED MANY WAYS
fter you catch your flounder, what do you do with it? Flounder don’t look like any other fish so don’t treat them like other fish destined for the table.
“Flounder is different from other fish species,” explains Loren Gautier, the executive chef for One Thirty One Lameuse, one of the newest restaurants in downtown Biloxi. “A flounder’s bone structure is different, but one of the great things about flounder is people can prepare it many different ways.”
Gautier grew up cooking and eating fresh seafood coming from the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding waters. He became a chef about 10 years ago.
“We cook a lot of seafood,” the chef says. “Since we’re right on the Gulf of Mexico, it’s really fresh when it comes to the restaurant. We know where it slept the night before!”
To prepare flounder, scale both sides. Then, start with a very sharp fillet knife, not an electric knife. Insert the knife point just behind the fish’s gills in the center of its back. Cut down to the backbone, but not through it. Generally follow the lateral line and slice the fish down the middle of its back. Then, make an H, slicing the fillet on top and bottom just behind the fish’s gills and in front of its tail.
Slice off the fillets on either side of the spine. Turn the fish over to the underside and do the same
thing. That creates four fillets. People can cook the fillets like any other fish. They can fry, bake, broil or grill it. They can also add the meat to sauces.
“I always like tomato with my flounder,” Gautier comments. “With the fillets, people can make a spicy fish tomato stew dish like a Cajun courtbullion. People can also grill flounder fillets, but it’s a flaky meat. People need to put it on a flat surface, not a charcoal grill. Some people can grill it with the skin still on the fish.”
Many people like stuffed flounder, one of the most popular dishes on the Gulf Coast. For stuffing a flounder, follow the same initial steps. After scaling it, cut the head off and remove the entrails from the body cavity. Then, slice it down the middle like filleting it, but don’t completely remove the fillets. Instead, slice along each side of the backbone, but only slice enough to make a pocket on either side of the spine. Keep the meat sections attached to the skeleton. Cut small slits across the top of the meat and add crabmeat or any other type of stuffing. Grill, bake or broil the whole fish.
“I really like the way stuffed flounder holds together,” Gautier states. “People can get creative and stuff flounder many different ways with different ingredients. Some people make a fish florentine with it. One of my favorite ways to cook a stuffed flounder is to cook it with a shallow poach. I stuff it with crabmeat and bread crumb stuffing. Then, I place the fish in a pan with white wine, lemon juice and fish stock. I season the fish inside and out and pop it into an oven.”
120 | May 2022
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