The Monday Recipe Blog

What a great Monday!  How about a recipe that you can use with any pan, but tastes better when cooked in cast iron?  Although you normally think of Fridays when you think of fried fish, this is a perfect Monday for a pan-fried catfish recipe.  Gives you the rest of the week to go fishing and bring home the fish!

Pan-Fried Catfish:

You will need:
Medium cast-iron dutch oven
Deep fry thermometer
4 catfish fillets, 5 or 6 ounces each.
1/2 t. ground pepper
1 t. salt, if you want to add salt.
1 c. white cornmeal
1 T. plus 1 t. Old Bay Seasoning or similar fish seasoning mix
1/2 t. celery salt
1/4 t. cayenne pepper, ground
Enough vegetable oil to fry the fish, this will be about 8 or so cups

Season each fillet with pepper and salt, if you like.

Put all of the other dry ingredients into a large plastic resealable bag.  Put each fillet, one at a time, into the bag and shake until coated thoroughly with the cornmeal mixture.

In a medium Dutch oven (4-6 qt), pour in the oil and heat over medium heat until it registers 360F on a deep-fry thermometer.

Fry the fillets all in one batch until they are golden brown on both sides, this will be about 3 or 4 minutes.  Do not overcook.  Remove from heat and drain on paper towels, serving at once.