Last Saturday, we kicked off the fall season of cooking classes here in The Market Kitchen with Freshwater Fish. We tackled three recipes using beautiful pickerel, trout and whitefish from Georgian Bay and Manitoulin Island.

This stuffed pickerel recipe is classic Canadian cooking – made with a few simple local ingredients, it’s really easy prepare and fun to serve, whether at home or at the lake. We bought three beautiful pickerel from Domenic’s Fish Market here in St Lawrence Market and they butterflied them for us – meaning, that they left the fish whole but opened them up and removed their rib cages and backbones to make them easy to serve without the bones to contend with. For the stuffing, we got double smoked bacon from Upper Cut Meats and lovely dried chanterelle mushrooms from Murray at Golden Orchard Fine Foods – and we used both in our stuffing to give it a wonderful smokey, woodsy flavour. Because you are essentially steaming the fish inside the foil, make sure your bread is at least a day old (and if it’s not, toast lightly to dry it out) or else the stuffing will be mushy.

Next week – cakes class. Enjoy

FOIL-WRAPPED PICKEREL WITH BACON STUFFING
*For a vegetarian version, replace bacon with 1 small package (28 grams) of dried mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes in warm water then squeezed dry. Sautee with vegetables.
Makes 4 servings

1 whole pickerel, butterflied or 2 skin-on fillets
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Stuffing:
2 thick slices bacon
1 small onion, diced
1 celery stalk (with leaves), diced
1 garlic clove, minced
Half sweet green pepper, diced
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage and/or thyme
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 slices day-old white sandwich bread
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon dried poultry seasoning

Stuffing: In skillet, fry bacon until edges are crispy. Drain on paper towels; dice and set aside. Add onions and cook over medium heat until softened and slightly golden, about 7 minutes. Add celery, garlic, green pepper, salt and pepper; cook until celery is softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl.

Meanwhile, remove crusts from bread and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Add to onion mixture along with parsley, poultry seasoning, butter and bacon; toss to combine and moisten.

Place 1 fillet, skin side down, on greased 24-inch long piece of heavy-duty foil; place other fillet on cutting board. Squeeze 1 lemon wedge over each fillet; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread stuffing evenly over fillet on foil; top with remaining fillet, skin side up. Wrap tightly; overwrap, seam side down, in second piece of foil.

Bake in 400°F oven directly on oven rack (or, using indirect heat on your barbeque) until fish flakes easily when tested and stuffing is moist with crusty edges, about 25 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes before unwrapping (to help prevent skin from sticking.) Serve with remaining lemon.

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