I just watched the F Word yesterday featuring Gordon Ramsay. He did a section on catfish and fished in a lake in Oklahoma.
Part of this programme showed a catfish in corn batter, I can get hold of catfish in the UK, but has anyone got an authentic corn batter recipe I could try?
Thanks.
Zomling
You can’t go wrong with either of these recipes…
Ingredients
4-5 lbs catfish fillets
1 cup finely ground yellow corn meal
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
½-¾ tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp granulated garlic
2 tsp granulated onion
ground cayenne pepper to taste
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp Louisiana style hot sauce
oil for frying, enough to completely submerge fish
Directions
Heat oil to 375.
Rinse catfish fillets and place on paper towel to drain.
Place corn meal, flour, salt, black and red pepper, granulated garlic and granulated onion in a large shallow bowl and mix well.
Place eggs, buttermilk, and hot sauce in a bowl and mix well.
Soak catfish fillets in buttermilk/egg mixture for 5-10 minutes.
Remove fillets a few at a time from the buttermilk/egg mixture, shake off excess and roll in cornmeal flour mixture.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Season as necessary and serve up hot.
Note: I use catfish fillets for convenience. The fillets are simple to rinse and cook. If you like, you can use whole catfish. Try to avoid frozen fish. Select smaller fish such as Channel Catfish, dress and skin, leaving tails and fins on. Prepare as noted above.
As long as you’re frying catfish, fry up some Hush Puppies, too.
6 catfish fillets (good size)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
few drops of Tabasco or your favorite hot sauce (optional)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup bacon drippings or canola oil (or 2 tablespoons of each)
Sprinkle fillets on both sides with the pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and desired amount of hot sauce (Don’t go overboard here; catfish has a delicate flavor, and the idea is just to suggest some spice – not overpower).
Allow fillets to set at room temperature for 10 or 15 minutes. Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and remaining salt, mixing well. Dredge fillets in the flour/cornmeal mixture, and allow them to set for about 5 minutes. Fry fillets in hot oil for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until golden brown on both sides. Serve at once.
There is also the "Mother Recipe" for southern style catfish on the back of Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce bottles. It's a common household condiment and perhaps the best recipe for catfish.
Up here in the North, I have sometimes had channel cats and bullheads done in a wet [Drake's batter](http://www.drakesbattermix.com/). There is also a secret fish breading that is special to my area that does pretty good with catfish, but I have been unable to recall and find the name of the product. Maybe someone else knows? it comes in a plain, white, old fashioned box with plain black printing. I believe it is a crumb coating and common to The Lake Erie region, most often use for perch? (..Maybe a batter, I'm not sure?)
I don't know how tasty those African catfish that you get in the UK will be compared to a River or Lake Cat, can't guarantee that.Thanks for the recipes Devilsknew, please excuse my ignorance, but what (besides shoes) are hush puppies?
Cheers,
Zomling
They are a Southern staple. Hushpuppies are rolled cornmeal batter that is deep fried. You don’t see them much outside of the South but they are quite good. They supposedly got their name from the fact that dogs hounded the cooks when fish was being deep fried. The cook would make a cornmeal roll for them and say “hush puppy”. Fried catfish isn’t just an Oklahoma thing. It is common all over the Deep South as well. devilsknew’s recipe looks good but you can google the internet for simpler recipes if you can’t get some of the ingredients. Fried catfish is very excellent.
Here’s the one I use. It’s straightforward, and you should have no difficulty finding any of the ingredients. As a bonus, it also includes a recipe for hushpuppies.
I should add, that’s a Mississippi recipe, but I don’t think there would be any substantial difference between the way they do it in Oklahama vs. Mississippi. There may be minor variations. Also, I don’t know if UK catfish is farm-raised or wild, but if you’re new to catfish, farm-raised fish has a sweeter and cleaner flavor than wild. Wild catfish can get quite muddy and algae tasting, which is fine if you’re used to it.
I use this for breading and deep fry for about 6-7 minutes.
Hush puppy is kind of like a donut hole but made of the corn meal battter. Little fried bread ball.
If you want to try hush puppies, they’re served with every meal at Long John Silver’s – but I don’t know if there are any LJS in Britain.
I like that stuff, and Sylvia’s and Louisiana Fish Fry.
But I don’t make a batter, like some of the recipes above; all I do is dust pieces in the cornmeal mixture and fry em up.
I’m making some tonight, as a matter of fact.
Thanks again for all your responses.
I will be trying some of these recipes as soon as we get a delivery from our fish supplier. In answer to a question, I’m not sure whether the fish is farmed or wild, this is all it said on the suppliers website. Is this the same species as you have in America? This one looks to me like a sea fish, but I’m not certain.
As far as hush puppies are concerned, I’d like to give them a try, but will have to make them myself as I have never seen them in the shops here. (Thanks for the recipe pulykamell ). Also I have not see a LJS restaurant in the UK, it’s possible that we may have them, but not where I live.
Hopefully I will report back soon on my catfish eating experience.
Yea, those are wolffish or ocean catfish fillets. Definitely not catfish. Never had wolffish myself, and it sounds like a nice fish from the descriptions but if the sellers description of the wolffish as full flavored and oily is correct, then it has nothing in common with catfish.
Earlier I mentioned the african catfish that are available in the UK and I was remiss. I was actually refewrring to the farmed raised Asian Catfish called Basa or Pangassus that is popular in Europe. That is a true catfish and from what I’ve heard bears much resemblence to American Catfish in texture, and flavor. That’s what I’d go with if you want to be authentic.
Also, the Hushpuppy, or cornmeal fritter (you might think of them as fried cornmeal bannock), recipe that Pulykamell linked seems really good, but depending on where you are at in the South and who’s doing the cooking, Huspuppies will sometimes have a tblsp. or more of sugar in the mix for a slightly sweeter Hushpuppy. It’s a matter of preference, but I thought I’d let you know.