Hell Divers Coonass Cook Book

These are the recipes the Hell Divers use to cook the mookies nobody else wants to eat. We don't waste a thing. Barracuda, Jack Crevalle, Spadefish, Triggerfish, Black Drum, Tarpon, and Stingray

Barracuda
I think the first fish I ate when I got in the Hell Divers was Barracuda.

That is a very popular fish at rodeos because it's one everybody can get. Underneath that stinky smell and is some wonderful greenish colored meet. But when fried it turns white as snow. You can feed an army of people with a 40lb. barracuda.

Jack Crevalle
Known for its red meat Jack Crevalle is best smoked, First cut his tail on the boat and bleed the fish from the water you speared it
to the house you clean it at, Take the top part of the shoulder of a Jack, this is usually the best part, make sure all of the blood line is out of it, season it with a heavy dose of Soy Sause and Tony's, then put in the smoker for till you can stick a fork in it without feeling any raw meat. You can squeeze lemon on it after but it's better to use oranges.

For that special added flavor put some sliced pineapples on top. Serve with some rice pilaf and your guests will think there eating Thanksgiving Ham and Rice!!!

Spadefish
Spadefish is one of the most abundant fish in the gulf with a great majority of them
showing up in the West Delta and Grande Isle blocks. For years when my father and I
caught them we discarded them as not being good to eat, till one day my dad brought
one home and we fried it with the bull croakers and red snappers we had caught that day.
I never threw another one back again.
Very simple, season and fry, try it you'll like it.

Triggerfish
The most difficult thing to a triggerfish is learning how to clean it. They have skin like sand paper and will dull your knofe if you don't know what you're doing. First you cut the anal fin and the upper fin just opposite of the anal fin off of the fish. This is your gateway to heaven and all of that wonderful meat inside of the fish. Always when filleting a trigger cut from the inside of the fish towards the outside. Once you get the fillets off of the fish, make sure to leave them on the skin. Taking them off
the skin will leave you with a dry piece of fish.

Spray the skin with Pam, then season with Tony's and cayenne pepper and throw on the barbeque pit. As with all fish if you cook it fast you change the texture of the meat and ruin the fish.

Black Drum
Because we're spear fishermen we usually don't get the little "puppy drums" they server in restaurants, we get the big ones. We usually don't fool around with the meat towards the tail section because it gets too many worms in it. But that is no reason to let the rest of the fish go to waste.

First put fillet in oven with 350 degree heat for 30 minutes, then
get 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, preferably garlic flavor, put in a black roasting pot and boil on stove top till meat falls apart. Also cook some mashed
potatoes with a stick of Velveeta cheese and chopped green onions and tell your friends they're eating red fish coubillion and they will never know the difference.

Tarpon and Garfish
When you get a hold of one of these babies you have fish to eat for weeks. The trick is how do you get to the meat through all those thick scales. No dought about it the scales have to come
off first, you will never cut through them. Take a flat blade shovel, yes a shovel, you are dealing with a fish that may weigh a hundred pounds or more. With the shovel you can scrape enough of the scales off the fish to be able to get to all that meat. This process is not necessary with the garfish.

You simply cut the meat out of the top and bottom portions of the fish in hunks. Don't worry about clean cuts just dig it out and put it in a large salad bowl. This is where you will have to learn how to make an Italian dish called "Modiga".
We use Modiga to stuff fish with but it's main use is on the top of artichokes. It's the stuffing used.
To make Modiga, get some Italian bread crumbs in a bag, chop several cloves of garlic and several bunches of parsley into it. Next add a whole bunch of lemon. You can't add too much.
Then run you meat and Modiga through a meat grinder. You can ad fennel seads if you want at this point. Afterwards you can make it into balls and cook with red gravy, or fry them, or you can put it casings as sausage. My freezer is always full of the stuff.

Stingray
We usually get very large stingrays with very large wings. And the wings are yummy. We simply make scallops out of them. You cut the wings of the stingray off and skin them. Then with a cookie
cutter you cut cookie size chunks out of the wings. My favorite is to make a white wine sauce, with mushrooms, artichoke hearts, black olives and sun dried tomatoes. Simmer this down is a frying pan and then throw your scallops in the pan. Cover and cook till the scallops are tender. This is an awesome
gourmet dish. Serve with dirty rice and white wine.

I hope you will enjoy these recipes for mookie fish. The Hell Divers can't stand to waste a fish and with such a bountiful Gulf we had to learn several ways to prepare the fish we harvest. Nest time you have a party try one of these recipes and your guests will say, "That was good, but what the Hell was it"?