Baked Walleye with a lemon cream sauce

My husband doesn't like fish unless is breaded, fried and drenched in tarter sauce. So when he was out of town for work last night, my mom came over and brought some fresh Walleye. A friend of my dad's goes out and ice fishes almost every day and gives him many filets. In addition, he is an expert fish-cleaner so there are no bones at all! If you've never had walleye, you definitely should try it. It is SO mild...even more so then Tilapia in my opinion!

I didn't use a recipe to make this dish because I had an idea in mind of how I wanted to make it. It came out SO good. Even today my mom called and said how great dinner was last night. It's definitely an easy weeknight meal that looks like it takes a lot longer to make then it actually does! I served this fish with some pasta tossed with Extra Virgin Olive oil, minced garlic, Italian herbs and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients
2 fresh filets of Walleye (or any other mild fish)
1/2 cup flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup panko bread crumbs (I used 1/2 plain and 1/2 italian seasoned)
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup milk (I use skim)
1/2 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
aprox. 3-4 chives, sliced
juice of half of a lemon
aprox. 1/8 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
pinch of nutmeg
salt
pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse off fish and pat dry. Season filets with salt and pepper. On one plate, add flour. On another, add Panko bread crumbs. And in a small bowl, add egg. Dredge both filets in flour, then egg, then Panko. Press fish into bread crumbs to create a generous coating. Place both filets in a baking dish coated with non stick spray, and bake for aprox. 20 minutes or until fish is no longer pink and easily flakes with a fork.

While fish is cooking, make the sauce. In a small-medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. When butter is melted, add shallots and garlic and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the garlic and shallots are fragrant and tender. Then whisk in flour and cook for another 1-2 minutes, whisking continuously. Make sure the mixture does not get too brown, it should be a light golden color. Whisk in milk and continue to whisk every few minutes to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. When the mixture comes up to a simmer, whisk in Parmesan, chives, nutmeg, salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste...I used 1/2 of a small lemon and I squeezed it very lightly. The mixture should gradually start to thicken. When it reaches your desired consistancy, drizzle over cooked fish.

Note- make sure you taste the sauce a lot at the end to get the seasoning right. If the sauce does not have enough salt, it is very "boring" tasting. You can easily tell when you have reached the perfect amount! This is really a delicious sauce when seasoned correctly!