Fish feast Catch of the day from days past

One of the first places I became familiar with after I was hired as a Herald sportswriter about 32 years ago was the Golden Hour Restaurant.

The Golden Hour was a downtown fixture for years before closing in the late 1970s or early '80s. Fire destroyed the building that housed the restaurant during the 1997 flood, and the site now is a green space/parking lot.

My first visit to the Golden Hour wasn't for dining; it was a party in the upstairs banquet room hosted by some friends.

I was a student at Moorhead State, and the only food on my mind was a Red Pepper grinder after the party. Little did I know of the Golden Hour's reputation for food, including its chicken-fried halibut.

It seems that the owner, Mrs. Oliver, kept the halibut recipe tightly guarded.

A few years ago, my friend, Darrel Koehler the Herald's garden columnist and former Helper was given the "secret" recipe. It came via a woman who said she once was a cook at the Golden Hour.

I tucked the recipe away in one of my many cookbooks, vowing some day to give it a try. Recently, that day had come.

When a friend told me that Suite 49 Restaurant had Golden Hour Halibut on its menu, I decided to make my own with some fish that my 86-year-old Uncle Curt had caught this past summer in Alaska.

The package of halibut contained two large fillets, so I decided to deep-fry half the fish and bake the other half.

I cut one fillet into 1-inch chunks and cooked it in canola oil in a cast iron frying pan atop the stove, using the "secret" batter recipe (1 cup flour, 1 teaspoons baking powder, teaspoon salt, teaspoon poultry seasoning and water to make a "thin" batter).

I baked the other fillet at 350 degrees for 1 hours, with two pats of butter and enough milk to cover two-thirds of the fish.

Neither dish was disappointing. The breading on the deep-fried fish was light, crisp and golden, while the baked fillet was moist and flaky. Served with some steamed brussels sprouts and boiled new potatoes, it was a meal worthy of a restaurant such as the Golden Hour.

Halibut is a good source of protein and is rich in a variety of important nutrients, including the beneficial omega-3 essential fatty acids, which provide a broad array of cardiovascular benefits.

Uncle Curt has been making his Alaska fishing trip for about 20 years or so, and for about the last half-dozen years, he has shared some of his bounty. We have kind of a barter system going. He gives me fish, and I give him pheasants.

After our wonderful halibut meal, I called Uncle Curt to thank him again. Coincidentally, Aunt Harriet had fixed him pheasant for supper, and Uncle Curt wondered how my hunting had been going it seems his freezer needed replenishing.

I told him not to worry, hunting had been good to me.

Here's hoping his fishing is good next summer.

Tiedeman is food editor at the Herald. He can be reached at 780-1136 or toll-free at (800) 477-6572, ext. 136, or jtiedeman@gfherald.com .