Pan Fried Bluegill with Coconut Curry Sauce

I went fishing at the pond and the water was low and clear. I caught plenty of 12 inch bass, and a handful of nice sized bluegill. The bass were released to eat as many small bluegill as possible and encourage larger ones, but the hand-sized sunnies ended up in the frying pan. After a quick gut and scale, I sprinkled some salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika and curry on the fish and fried them in coconut oil until nice and crispy.

Coconut Curry Bluegill with Jasmine Rice

I then removed the fish and added a lot more curry powder and some more coconut oil and fried some onion. Next came some green pepper and then a handful of our dried basil and some garlic. After this cooked a bit, I added equal parts coconut milk and chicken stock until I had a little more sauce than I wanted to end up with. I cooked this down until it thickened up a bit, then spooned it over the hot fish and warm jasmine rice. MMM… good.

Yeah… It was good.

Bluegill, bream, perch, sunfish, or whatever you want to call them are some of the tastiest and sweetest whitefish around. It also helps that the best thing you can do for a bluegill population is to harvest as many as possible so that their growth isn’t stunted. So get out there with some worms and bring some bluegills home!