No, seriously. 🙂 Today I found fresh catfish fillets at my local grocer. They look nice and firm and pink, and well, I have a weakness for catfish. The single best thing the fish industry could have done was farm raise catfish. I just love the intense flavor of catfish, paired with that meatiness you don’t normally associate with fish. Catfish is great grilled, fried, broiled, baked, blackened, stuffed into tacos, smothered in cream sauce, or poached in a delicate lime butter. You just can’t go wrong. Unless of course, you don’t care for catfish.
Tonight I am going to combine two of my favorite catfish recipes for an even better one. One recipe is for oven fried catfish by Cooking Light. This is a great recipe, and I love the crust. What I don’t love is the soaking in beer beforehand. So for the marinade part of the recipe, I will use a recipe by Emeril for Cajun Catfish. Emeril serves his up with chipotle cole slaw and wraps it up in a taco shell. Fabulous! The chipotle slaw is incredible. But for tonight I will use Emeril’s marinade, CL’s coating and method, and serve up the catfish with some magnificent Macaroni and Cheese (per Zander’s request today).
Here is the CL recipe:
Oven-Fried Catfish
You can use your favorite hot sauce, but we prefer the Louisiana brand in this recipe.
1/2 cup light beer
1/2 cup hot sauce
4 (6-ounce) farm-raised catfish fillets
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray
Combine first 3 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal and marinate in refrigerator 30 minutes. Remove fish from bag; pat dry with paper towels. Discard marinade.
Preheat oven to 450°.
Combine cornmeal, cornstarch, salt, and pepper in a shallow dish. Dredge fish in cornmeal mixture.
Lightly coat fish with cooking spray. Place fish on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, and bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet)
NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 296(27% from fat); FAT 8.8g (sat 1.9g,mono 3.1g,poly 2.5g); PROTEIN 32.8g; CHOLESTEROL 99mg; CALCIUM 74mg; SODIUM 361mg; FIBER 1.1g; IRON 2.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 17.7g
Cooking Light, JULY 2001
And here is Emeril’s recipe for catfish, followed by his recipe for the chipotle slaw.
* Exported from MasterCook *
Catfish Tacos
Recipe By :Emeril
2 catfish fillets
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup creole mustard
1 teaspoon hot sauce
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon Essence
Cut fish into 1 inch strips. Place ina bowl with milk, mustard, hotsauce, salt and cayenne. Refridgerate 1 hour.
Heat oil to 350. Combine flour, cornmeal, and essence. Dredge fish and deep fry until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 695 Calories; 12g Fat (16.3% calories from fat); 64g Protein; 78g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 193mg Cholesterol; 1892mg Sodium. Exchanges: 5 Grain(Starch); 7 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1/2 Fat.
NOTES : Serve with Chipotle Slaw.
Chipotle Slaw! Yum, make it often, it is just slightly warm on the tongue, but oh so good.
* Exported from MasterCook *
Chipotle Coleslaw
Recipe By :Emeril
2 teaspoons chipotle chiles canned in adobo — finely chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 cup cabbage — shredded
1 cup red cabbage — shredded
1/4 cup red onion — finely chopped
1/4 cup green onions — chopped
Combine and chill until serving with catfish and corn tortillas.
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