the story.

     The wind whipped at her face, blowing her hair back into her sea blue eyes and crooked teeth. Her hat was too big for her head and her clothes were dirty and worn. The sky was cloudless and the waves of the Atlantic Ocean washed up to the tips of her fuschia painted toenails. Seagulls chirped overhead as the wind picked up once more, sending sand into the corners of her eyes and underneath her oversized flip-flops. The sun lay at the tip of the sky, there was so much day left.
     She had never been happier.
     “I got one! Opa, I got another one, come here!” She began to tug at her rod, pulling it back with all of her force and beginning to reel in the line. In the distance, waves began to splash frantically as she picked up speed. 
     “You didn’t get just one,” Opa beamed, observing the sea as he eagerly placed his hands over hers to help reel in her catch. “I think you might’ve gotten three - guess the seals didn’t beat us this time after all!”
​     Excitingly, she reeled the line in. At this moment, this was all that mattered. Vaguely, she could hear her Nonna further up on the beach cheering her on, the salt air spraying her cheeks - turned up in a smile as three giant Nova Scotian mackerels came up with the rest of her line.
    “What a catch, Ellie!” Opa quickly helped her get the flailing mackerel off of the line. “Alright, close your eyes, I’m going to clean them and then you know what to do,” he said sternly, nodding towards the ice bucket further down the shore. 
-
     “What a day! How many did you end up catching?” Nonna smiled at her kindly, looking at the heavy bucket full of fish that Opa carried steadily. 
     “I counted twenty-seven!” Beginner fisherman's luck, she supposed.
     “Oh my! We’ll have meals for days, with that many for just the three of us,” Nonna winked at her, wrapping a gentle arm around her shoulder.
     “We’ve got a few stops to make on the way home first,” Opa handed her some plastic bags, grinning. “Who says this is all for us? I know a few Nova Scotians who would love to have a taste of this.”
-
     As the sun began to dip beneath the Atlantic, the cozy house just off of Big Baddeck Road, Nova Scotia, seated a little girl beaming from ear to ear, with nothing but her grandparents and a lovely plate of Nova Scotian-style pan fried mackerel around her. And while twenty-seven mackerel turned to three, each of them knew that every house in Baddeck that day was enjoying their handiwork, and somehow that made the meal even tastier.

August 11th, 2019 "The Great Catch"

the recipe.

standard serving - 4 mackerel feeds 4 people - 1 mackerel per person
​
you will need… 

• Bucket
• Filleting knife
• Skillet
• A room you don’t mind stinking up!

ingredients:

• Fresh caught Nova Scotian mackerel (1 per person)
• 1 bag of Ice 
• 4 cups of Flour
• A pinch Salt
• A sprinkle Pepper
• 1 tablespoon Butter or margarine
• Potatoes (quantity varies)
• Chow (quantity varies)

steps:

1. Fresh Nova Scotian Mackerel, preferably caught day-of 
2. Clean each fish (immediately after catching), Bleed the fish
   1. Remove scales & rinse
   2. Remove the entrails
   3. Trim, remove the fins & head
3. Put the fish over ice (immediately after cleaning)
4. Rinse, fillet each fish
   1. To fillet a fish, take a filleting knife and make a cut along the side of the fish’s backbone. Keeping the knife practically flat, cut the flesh away from that side of the backbone, slice around the top of the bones towards the edge. This should be performed from the head towards the tail. 
   2. Repeat on the other side of the backbone.
5. Pat the fish dry (to ensure flour will coat without turning into glue)
6. Put 4 cups of flour on a surface of choice (bowl, plate, counter, etc.)
7. Dredge each fillet in the flour
8. Season with salt and pepper
9. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine  in a heavy skillet 
10. Fry each fillet (skin side down first) for around a minute or two over high heat (375°F/190°C)
    1. (Recommended to do this step outside or somewhere you wouldn’t mind having a fishy smell lingering!)
11. Best served with potatoes (either fries or boiled) and chow (a pickled-green tomato commonly used in many Nova Scotian dishes), but the sides are ultimately up to you!
12. Enjoy this tasty east-coast classic! 

some stills from Baddeck, Nova Scotia

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