Catfish stew

[Bill Mc]

Catfish Stew

Method one: Cooked in a camp dutch oven outside using charcoal.

Method two: A Regular dutch oven with a lid placed in an oven.

Ingredients depend on the size of the oven. A 10 inch oven would require about 3 onions and 3 potatoes and about six catfish fillets.

Use several strips of streak-o-lean on the bottom of the oven for seasoning and to prevent burning.

Then using ¼ in slices of onions, potatoes and catfish fillets, make 2 layers of onions, potatoes and catfish. Season per your taste. Seasoning should include salt and black pepper plus one celery stalk cut in small pieces.
Additional seasons might include hot peppers per your taste.

Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are done.

Good

 

[Blizzard of '93]

liquid to add??

 

[Bill Mc]

No liquid. It makes it's own.

 

[George]

Catfish Stew”¦. Cooked in a camp dutch oven outside using charcoal.

Sounds like a good one, Bill Mc. I cook a similar one at home using layers of cod, potatoes and onions, seasoned with chopped green olives, raisins and olive oil.

Your recipe reminded me of the first 18th-century reference I ever found to a pot which might have been a dutch oven. At least it was used as one. In 1775, floating down the Ohio River in a walnut dugout canoe, James Nourse, Sr., described a meal he cooked on the river bank.

"Thursday 11th May breakfasted upon coffee and bread and butter, went a fishing, catched none but exchanged a piece of bacon for 2 cats, stewed under Capt. Smith’s direction in an iron pot with half a pint water and between each layer butter, pepper and salt putting sticks to keep the fish from the bottom and then putting fire over and under the pot, a good dish for those that love seasoned meat."

Spence

 

[satx78247]

Fwiw, almost any firm-fleshed fish will work with this recipe. = I like WAHOO in a very similar recipe, IF you can get some fresh.

yours, satx

 

[crockett]

They have wahoo in TX?

 

[tenngun]

I know I'm a southern boy, and say this with shame :redface: but everything Alden says about grits I say about catfish. The only thing I can think to do with it is coon and bobcat bait, and feeding it to cats (wouldn't wish it on a dog :haha: ) bon apitte boys.

 

[satx78247]

You bet. = GREAT fish, cooked most any way.
(THE WHARF in Aransas Pass cooks wahoo about 20 ways & ALL of them are GREAT.= My beloved doesn't usually like anything but shrimp & fresh shellfish BUT she does like wahoo, broiled with peppercorns.)

I just wish that you could freeze it for eating when we return from the coast. = Wahoo turns into "mush" when it is frozen/thawed.
(Fyi, I called TWU's Foods & Nutrition Department, as I was once married to a "Tessie" & still know people there, & was told that "Wahoo just doesn't freeze or travel well." and "That fish is like new potatoes. - Pity that you cannot successfully freeze & thaw it for later consumption.")

yours, satx

 

[crockett]

A pal at a former job had an ocean going boat and he caught wahoo and steaked them on board and grilled smoked them right on board- said GOOD.
Catfish not tasty???? I've had a few giants probably blues and from the Mississippi or Ohio (Land between the lakes- KY) that weren't that great but the lateral line was likely left in. Any channel cat around 2-3 pounds has always tasted great- just like haddock or any other white fish. Roll in a 50/50 white flour/corn meal with salt and fresh ground pepper and red pepper flakes and fry in bacon fat/peanut oil. I mix up a mayo/tabasco sauce as well.

 

[satx78247]

My favorite size of catfish is "roasting ear" size as those are GREAT-tasting cooked most any way. = We call that size, "Squealers" in NE Texas.

In Northeast TX, where I was born/raised", the question, "Wanna' go eat fish?" nearly always means channel cat, that has simply been dressed, rolled in corn meal/salt/black pepper & deep-fried.
(The "fancy catfish" recipes, like "Oklahoma Dipped" are fixed North of the muddy Red River or East of the Sabine.)

Btw, we NE Texicans eat catfish with French fries, CADDO RELISH and/or the blazingly HOT condiment that we call: GREEN FIRE.
(You know that you're eating with native-born "NE-Texicans" if they asks the waitress for a vegetable bowl of Caddo Relish for each "eater" & then ask for several more "refills". - We're so "country-fied" that we all eat Caddo Relish as a "main side dish".)

yours, satx

 

[crockett]

Sounds good.