“KISS” my Catfish (Bear Style)
OK here’s my favorite way to do Catfish “KISS” (Keep It Simple Soldier).
I like Catfish Breaded, and eventually I’ll Smoke a few, but once again I decided on KISS.
I much prefer Smaller Wild-caught Catfish, but these larger ones were pretty good too. I actually prefer the size that I can get 4 or 5 Catties in the Pan at once.
When my Dad was still around, we used to go to the Delaware River & fish all night, and sometimes bring our limits home (50 Each). They all ran between 10" and 12" long. Then we'd have a Family Fish Fry, and my Mom would just keep frying, until everybody had their fill. I was good for about 5, my brother 3 or 4, and even my younger Sister would take care of 3 of them.
A Catfish is the easiest fish to clean & eat, and the only fish that we never filleted. All you have to do is Skin it, gut it, cut the head off, rinse it off, and Fry it. Then you just grab the head end of the backbone, and scrape all the meat from one side off the bone, with a fork. Then flip it over and do the same thing on the other side. Now you have a pile of Meat without a single bone, and in your hand is the complete skeletal system of the Catfish, all in one piece, including the Rib cavity. You can’t do that with any other Fish!!
So all I do is melt a bunch of butter in a Pan, and Drop a Fillet (or Fillets) in the butter.
Then after the first flip I give it a couple good shakes of “Old Bay” seasoning.
I like to get it pretty well browned, because that little bit of soft bark adds to the overall flavor.
You will see 2 completely different Catfish Fillets, so don’t get the idea that it’s the same one. (Second one was slightly bigger on the second night)
I did the same thing two nights in a row, but after adding some Tartar sauce on my plate with the first one, I didn’t feel it was needed on the second one. The Awesome flavor of the Fried Catfish was too good to spoil with any Tartar sauce!
I do however make sure I get some extra Browned Butter on the plate, from the Pan, when I serve it to myself
I didn’t add any Veggies this time, but I did have a few slices of Italian Bread with Butter, not shown in Pics.
Enjoy,
Bear
One Nice Catfish Fillet:
Swimming in Butter:
Getting close to done:
Plated with extra Butter & some Tartar Sauce:
Second Night's Supper
Another of the same, only slightly larger:
Browning nicely:
Now we're getting there:
Perfect !!
Plated with extra Butter. Tartar Sauce Not Needed:
OK here’s my favorite way to do Catfish “KISS” (Keep It Simple Soldier).
I like Catfish Breaded, and eventually I’ll Smoke a few, but once again I decided on KISS.
I much prefer Smaller Wild-caught Catfish, but these larger ones were pretty good too. I actually prefer the size that I can get 4 or 5 Catties in the Pan at once.
When my Dad was still around, we used to go to the Delaware River & fish all night, and sometimes bring our limits home (50 Each). They all ran between 10" and 12" long. Then we'd have a Family Fish Fry, and my Mom would just keep frying, until everybody had their fill. I was good for about 5, my brother 3 or 4, and even my younger Sister would take care of 3 of them.
A Catfish is the easiest fish to clean & eat, and the only fish that we never filleted. All you have to do is Skin it, gut it, cut the head off, rinse it off, and Fry it. Then you just grab the head end of the backbone, and scrape all the meat from one side off the bone, with a fork. Then flip it over and do the same thing on the other side. Now you have a pile of Meat without a single bone, and in your hand is the complete skeletal system of the Catfish, all in one piece, including the Rib cavity. You can’t do that with any other Fish!!
So all I do is melt a bunch of butter in a Pan, and Drop a Fillet (or Fillets) in the butter.
Then after the first flip I give it a couple good shakes of “Old Bay” seasoning.
I like to get it pretty well browned, because that little bit of soft bark adds to the overall flavor.
You will see 2 completely different Catfish Fillets, so don’t get the idea that it’s the same one. (Second one was slightly bigger on the second night)
I did the same thing two nights in a row, but after adding some Tartar sauce on my plate with the first one, I didn’t feel it was needed on the second one. The Awesome flavor of the Fried Catfish was too good to spoil with any Tartar sauce!
I do however make sure I get some extra Browned Butter on the plate, from the Pan, when I serve it to myself
I didn’t add any Veggies this time, but I did have a few slices of Italian Bread with Butter, not shown in Pics.
Enjoy,
Bear
One Nice Catfish Fillet:
Swimming in Butter:
Getting close to done:
Plated with extra Butter & some Tartar Sauce:
Second Night's Supper
Another of the same, only slightly larger:
Browning nicely:
Now we're getting there:
Perfect !!
Plated with extra Butter. Tartar Sauce Not Needed:
