Fried Catfish
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Catfish are pretty ugly creatures, but good, and usually cheap, eating. I had forms of catfish growing up in our fish tank, but never saw the real thing until I got to New Orleans. We used to drive out to Middendorf’s in Manchac, Lousiana, on Lake Maurepas, about 40 miles northwest of the city, to chow on fried catfish and take back a trunk full of fillets to freeze and cook up for a couple of months, before our next expedition up Lake Pontchartrain. Trying to mimic the goods at Middendorf’s, we would fry up our fillets and turn out pretty good stuff for a home kitchen. Over the years the Grub Blogger has picked up a few tricks on frying, and now avoids the splattering and sometime greasy end product of his college years.
The two keys to good frying are having sufficient oil and enough heat to cook and not poach. Read more…
Blackened fish fillets has become the prototypical Cajun dish, served as restaurants across the country trying to get a little bit of the New Orleans spirit onto their menu. The Grub Blogger sees nothing wrong with this, but none of those places are serving the real deal - a red fish fillet, doused in melted butter and quickly sauteed on a screaming hot cast iron pan. This is always done outdoors, because of the smoke that comes from the quickly seared fillet. Still, that is really hardcore, and finding red fish is not that easy. Here, I hope my recipe falls somewhere in between the outdoor Cajun cook and what you’d find at a pretty good restaurant making an honest try at it. One thing I do use is cast iron. If you don’t have one, these are great pans. With a little work, you end up with a pan that can be used for many years, with a non-stick surface that no DuPont scientist could match. This happens when you season the pan, which means greasing it up witht a little oil or manteca when clean, and hopefully still a little warm, and wiping it down so only a very thin layer is left. That is what folk mean by a well-seasoned pan. I like to say that I boughy my pan for my grandchildren to use, I am just seasoning it up for them. Cast iron is great for blackening, because the heavy-duty pan holds the heat well, with out burning the flesh. 
