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+-- Thread: Catfish (/showthread.php?tid=118087)
Catfish - Gourmet_Mom - 02-28-2011
(Jean, I have only one defense....the devil made me do it.)
I have been seriously craving fish lately. I told William yesterday, as I looked over the "fresh" fish from Thailand, that I NEEDED some fresh fish. The other day, when Jody, the employee, was here, he caught a catfish. But it was getting late, and he didn't have any more minnows. William is bringing Jody tomorrow, and he's going to sit on the pier with an ample supply of minnows to catch me catfish. If luck is on my side, we'll be having fried catfish Wednesday night!
I'll document the catch, and hopefully the cleaning and cooking here. I am soooo excited!
Re: Catfish - Mare749 - 02-28-2011
That sounds so good, Daphne. I just love fried catfish with hot sauce! Are you going to make some greens to go with?
Re: Catfish - Gourmet_Mom - 02-28-2011
What do you mean by greens? I would normally make fries and slaw, but I'm thinking about sweet potato fries. William still has plenty of collards and curly mustard in the garden. Suggestions?
Re: Catfish - Mare749 - 02-28-2011
That's what I was going to ask you for. I love greens, but don't have them very often and only when someone else makes them. I was going to ask you how to cook greens.
Re: Catfish - Gourmet_Mom - 02-28-2011
LOL! Sorry, I missed that.
When I cook collards, I wash them several times...they're usually very gritty from the sand where they grow. I remove the tough stem and put them in a BIG stock pot with about 2 inches of water and a couple of ham hocks that have boiled until the ham hock is tender. Let them cook until fork tender and remove and eat, slice, or shred. I add a little of the "pot likker" to make them taste good. That's up to you.
The amount of cook time is up to the consumer. I like mine "just fork tender". Others like them VERY tender(mush, IMHO), while others like them crisp tender. Just taste as you go. When they're almost like you want them....take them out! As you know, they'll continue to cook.
I have also done this with fresh, rich chicken stock with GREAT results. I have also added chopped onion to the stock before cooking the collards.
Two ham hocks will season about two or three large "heads" of collards....depending on size. Be sure to save the ham hocks and extract the meat. It is heavenly!
Is that what you were looking for?
Also, if you make collards in this way, you have GOT to make fried cornbread to go with. It's the law. Swear!
Re: Catfish - Old Bay - 03-01-2011
If collards were the only green, I would eat no greens. We eat mustards, turnip greens, spinach, tenders, beet greens, but we cannot stand collards.
We cook greens by rinsing them completely, and cooking in a little salt pork grease with only the water clinging to the greens after rinsing--cover and cook until just tender--just a few minutes,add salt if needed. I use my ham hocks in black eyed peas.
Re: Catfish - cjs - 03-01-2011
Wow, did I come to attention when I saw this title!!!
How funny, Daphne!! I'm so getting on a plane.... I'm working on a couple of catfish recipes right now and if Costco has some, I'm going to give in and just buy those. (I mentioned a pact R & I made not to buy any meat - 'cause we are, like Laura, TRYING to clean out freezers)
I sure don't cook with greens enough - I'm copying yours and Bills (by the way, hello stranger!! did you find a new neighborhood to play in?? we don't see much of you) methods. Must broaden our horizons.
Glad Maryann brought them up.
Re: Catfish - Mare749 - 03-01-2011
I'm glad I brought it up too! Both methods sound good to me! This opens up a whole new section of fresh veggies for me to try cooking at home. I thought that I had heard from someone that you have to cook collards for a really long time for them to get tender, so I never tried it.
Another thing that I'm wondering is what kind of greens did I have that I liked? It never crossed my mind that I would prefer one type over another. I like a little hot sauce sprinkled on the greens too.
I must have southern roots!
Re: Catfish - Gourmet_Mom - 03-01-2011
William grew Kale this winter, in addition to collards, and he's used the same method.
Bill, it's funny, my mother uses salt cured meat for her collards and ham hock for her black eyed peas. I can go either way. It's funny you hate collard greens. I hate mustard and turnip greens...LOL!
Back to the catfish....William just got home and Jody is headed down the pier right now! We'll see! I'm charging the camera battery so I can document the catch! I hope he gets plenty.
Re: Catfish - labradors - 03-01-2011
At a restaurant in Georgia, I was surprised to discover that I liked collard greens (for which they used fatback). I haven't had them since, but one of the supermarkets, here, often has mustard greens.
Since this sub-discussion has Daphne and Bill to represent the opposing sides, would you each please give one or more reasons you dislike one type of green and prefer the other? It is that one is too strong a flavour or the other doesn't have enough flavour? Is it a texture issue, as to whether one retains some crispness while the other doesn't, or one just seems too mushy? Are there other factors? I'd like to have some idea of the differences before I go through the trouble of buying and cooking them.
Thanks!