Instructions: Melt butter in a cast-iron skillet, add onions, garlic, peppers, paprika and diced pecans. Cook over medium heat until onions are clear. Add Tabasco sauce.

Turn heat to high, add sliced pecans and fish pieces cut about 1 inch thick. Cook on high 4-5 minutes per side. Smear uncooked side with sauce before turning. Add lemon juice and oregano after turning.

NOTES:
* Fish in a hot garlic/pecan sauce - The Cajun Cafe in Portland Oregon serves a sauce whose recipe they got under license from K-Pauls in New Orleans. They devoutly refused to answer all of my questions about the sauce or its ingredients, so Ive tried to formulate it on my own, at home.

This stuff doesnt taste exactly like what the restaurant serves, but its delicious in its own right. Maybe its best to title the recipe "fish with something not entirely unlike hot fanny sauce."

This sauce is best served with a moderately strong fish: I would recommend sturgeon, swordfish, or tuna.

* If you are cooking more pieces of fish than will fit in the skillet at once, make the sauce ahead, put it aside (keep warm) and add it before cooking each piece of fish.

* Serve with a simple rice or pasta dish. I use saffron rice with snow peas, or linguine with shrimp meat and pesto.

Difficulty: moderate.

Time: 45 minutes.

Precision: no need to measure.

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