Convergence of Gardening & Fishing

One of the only things I enjoy more than gardening is fishing. Sometimes, those two things come together.

Such was the case this week in our house. My wife Janessa cooked the most delicious pot of Thai red curry with some fish we caught at the coast last weekend and a basket of veggies she picked from the garden – green peas, cabbage, carrots, and green onions. She cooked it on Monday and I’ve been eating it all week. I can’t stop.

That pot of curry began at our fish camp on the Nueces River near George West.

We drove down there this weekend to visit Janessa’s parents, who live in Beeville. We stayed at our river lot and fished Saturday night.

The fishing wasn’t the best. The wind was blowing about 30 miles an hour all weekend. I managed to catch a nice crappie, about the size of my hand. Janessa’s sister was with us, and she caught a gar, but we threw it back.

We went to bed Saturday night and I dreamed of catching redfish. I talked Janessa into driving the 50 miles to Corpus Christi Sunday morning. We tried fishing on the north shore near the USS Lexington. The wind was unbearable. Plus, there was no live shrimp to be found at any of the bait shops.

We drove across the bridge to Portland and toward Rockport. We fished from the shore at Howard Murph Memorial Park on Copano Bay behind the Aransas County Airport. I caught some big mullet in my cast net. We used them for cut bait. Janessa used some to catch an undersized redfish under a popping cork. A friendly game warden came by to check on us.

He cautioned me of a massive alligator that lives in a hole next to the spot where Janessa was fishing. I tried warning her. She didn’t want to leave on account of the redfish she just caught.

“There might be a school of them here,” she said.

She acted tough, but she eventually shuffled a few yards away from the alligator hole, however. We never saw the alligator.

There were only two other fishermen in the park when we arrived. By this time, about six or eight others arrived to crowd the spot. We packed up and moved on.

We drove around the bay to a kayak launch spot on Rattlesnake Point Rd. We tried fishing there for a while with no success. We then drove north on Hwy. 35 across the Aransas Bay bridge to Goose Island State Park in Lamar. The wind there was terrible, so we kept driving up Hwy. 35.

Years ago we stopped at a spot called Hooper’s Landing on San Antonio Bay near Austwell. I wasn’t sure if it was still there. We drove the maze of backroads through endless, flat cornfields. A dilapidated barn and a new silo were about the only landmarks in this sea of cropland. A old, faded sign for Hopper’s Landing appeared. It didn’t look promising. But the place does bill itself as a “poor man’s marina.” We drove past a few old cabins and RV spots toward the store and boat launch. No cars were in the parking lot, but a “open” sign hung on the door.

Sure enough, the place was still in operation. We took a seat at the bar and ordered a beer.

“Y’all have any bait?” I asked.

“Just dead shrimp,” the bartender said.

We spoke with the lady who runs the place. Janessa told her about the gar her sister caught the day before. Adelle shared her recipe for fried gar patties.

We walked down to the bayfront and strolled along the water’s edge. A older fellow was walking down there with his granddaughter. They found three Barbie dolls that washed up on the shore. I always wonder how things like that end up on the shore. Did they fall off a house boat? Did they float here all the way from China or Indonesia?

Janessa said she was tired of fishing, so we started back home. On the drive through Austwell, I convinced her to check out the City park on the bay. Austwell reminds me of Moulton, only smaller, on the bay, and without any beer joints.

I can see why they built a town here. It sits up high on a bluff overlooking San Antonio Bay. We drove down the bluff to the park. And walked down to the boat ramp. Janessa spotted a giant drum head floating in the water next to the ramp.

“Throw the cast net, I bet there’s some bait,” she said.

Sure enough, I caught a mess of little shad.

“OK, let’s fish some more,” she said.

No arguments here.

We baited the shad under our popping corks and cast past some rip rap next to the boat ramp. She lost her bait twice to some good bites. We moved closer to the boat ramp. Janessa hooked something huge. She jerked the rod too hard and broke the line. We never saw the cork come back up.

It was getting late, about 5:30 p.m. I had to work the next morning, and we were still a few hours from home. But the fish were biting. We couldn’t stop now. I hooked something big. Like a fool, I allowed it to get close to some pilings. It rolled on top of the water for just a moment, and I think it may have been a big black drum. The fish tangled the line on the pilings and broke free.

Then Janessa hooked another fish. She managed to land it this time. It was a gafftop sail catfish, about 16 or 18 inches. I don’t keep hardheads, but I do keep gafftops. They’re tasty. Especially when you haven’t caught any redfish or trout. By the time she put that one on the stringer, I hooked another gafftop. This one was even bigger, almost two feet long.

The sun was nearly setting, so we cleaned our fish and headed home.

Now it was time to cook.

Our garden isn’t exactly in full harvest mode yet. We’ve been picking a handful of peas every other day but never enough for a big pot. We still have a few carrots in the ground, but we’ve been rationing them. We also had a small head of cabbage. Add to that our humble catch of saltwater catfish.

That sounded like a recipe for a Thai curry to me. Janessa read my mind. Thai curries are the perfect dish to make with just a handful of veggies and a few scraps of meat or fish. These stew dishes from Thailand start with curry paste. You can make curry paste, but it’s much easier to buy from an Asian market. It comes in tubs and lasts forever in the refrigerator.

They’re made from onions, garlic, peppers, a gingerlike root called galangal, dried shrimp, Kaffir lime leaves, and all sorts of other exotic ingredients. Curry paste comes in several varieties, the most popular being red and green. Red curry paste is made with red peppers while green curry paste is made from green peppers. Both are spicy, but the green paste is usually much hotter.

You start by frying the paste in a large pot with some peanut oil. I usually add some extra onion and garlic. Then add two cans of coconut milk. Do not use “light” coconut milk. It doesn’t have enough fat content to make the curry velvety and creamy.

We always add a few splashes of Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce to our curries, depending on which variety we are able to find. Fish sauce is basically fish that is fermented until it turns into a brown liquid. It smells just like you think it would – funky. But it’s a tasty funk, like good Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese or sauerkraut.

Bring the pot to a boil and add whatever vegetables you wish to include. Janessa used a couple of small potatoes, a carrot from the garden, a handful of snow peas, a small head of cabbage and a zucchini – all chopped in bit-sized pieces. Once the potatoes softened, she added the fish, which she cut into inch-to-two inch pieces. The fish takes only a few minutes to cook.

Next ladle the hot curry into bowls and garnish with chopped onions, jalapenos, cilantro and lime wedges. Add a few drops of sesame oil and enjoy!