Traditionally, piccata is an Italian dish of pounded veal or chicken cutlets lightly floured, browned in butter, and finished in a sauce packed with briny flavor thanks to a copious amount of capers and lemon. Honestly, this sauce works with almost any meat you throw at it. The twist I've offered here is doing this dish with some good ole Minnesota walleye and using lobster mushroom powder in the flour mixture, which perfectly complements the fish.

If you can slice thin pieces of fish, that's all the better because this dish is cooked entirely in a pan on the stovetop, and pounding the fish isn't an option here. Smaller fillets from fish like eater walleyes and crappie are fine as is, but you could slice larger fillets on a long bias to thin them out if need be. You could easily cut slices from fillets from larger fish like halibut and swordfish into perfect "cutlets."

Wild mushroom powder is a pantry staple for me. I like dehydrating thin slices and buzzing them to a powder in a spice or coffee grinder. You can also useGnome on the Range Umami Spice Rubhere. Both work great. I've made a habit lately of advocating for kitchen gadgets in these recipes, so here we go again. Get yourself a Microplane. It is, by far, the best way to zest citrus and finely grate hard cheeses like parmesan. I use mine almost every day.

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1. Clean and slice the fish. Cut the fillets on a long bias into pieces that are roughly four inches long. Combine the mushroom powder and flour and season the mixture with a teaspoon each of salt and pepper.
2. Pan-fry the fish. Add three tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of oil to a large sauté pan or cast iron skillet on just shy of high heat. Lightly coat the fish in the flour mixture and pan-fry in two batches until browned and fully cooked through. Add an extra tablespoon of butter for the second round. Remove the fish to a plate and keep it warm. Pour out half of the toasted flour cooking liquid before starting the sauce. Removing some will prevent any overwhelming fish-fry flavors.
3. Make the sauce. Place the pan back onto the high heat and immediately add a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of butter. Throw in the capers and garlic and cook until the garlic begins to brown on the edges—about thirty seconds. Toss in the chili flake, lemon zest, and ½ teaspoon of black pepper. Now pour in the white wine and lemon juice to deglaze the pan. Cook until the sauce is reduced by half, about thirty seconds. Remove from the heat and whisk in the parsley and the remaining four tablespoons of butter. This will thicken the sauce and create a rich, silky finish. The entire process of making the sauce should only take a couple of minutes.
4. Plate the fish and pour all of the sauce over the fish. Serve with your favorite starch, like crispy potatoes, and some toasted bread to soak up the leftover sauce. You could also put the fish back into the sauce before plating to warm the pan-fried fillets.