Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Two Tips For Making Blackened Fish

I made blackened Tilapia from Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen last night. I blew it on the butter, using way too much, but everyone still liked it. It had a strong popcorn flavor that I felt cheapened the experience. Oh well. C'est la vie.

Blackened fish (and blackened steak) are easy to make if you follow these two simple tips.

  1. Do it outside on the grill. There's going to lots of smoke and splatter and there's no need to fill your house with the smell of charred bits of food and your kitchen with butter splotches. A big mound of coals pyramided under the pan works just as well as your burners set on high.
  2. Splurge and buy a really big cast iron skillet. Nothing is better than having plenty of room to work. I have a 15" pan and it allows me to do about 6 Tilapia fillets at the same time. It makes steaks easy, too.
And there you have it! Blackened fish in no time at all with no smoke and no mess.

Last night's fish were as much boiled in butter as blackened.
Update: As I was sitting in the Catican this morning, sipping coffee and blogging away like a loon, in the back of my mind a little voice was telling me I'd done this one before. Actually, I've given this advice a bunch of times. Still, I had the photo and a little story of boiling the fish in butter and it didn't seem to hurt to offer the suggestions one more time.

4 comments:

Kelly the little black dog said...

I still have fond memories of the dinner we had there when you visited NO.

K T Cat said...

Kelly, my lovely bride suggested that for our birthdays and anniversary this year, we go to NOLA to see the Chargers-Saints game! We'll spend a romantic weekend together and let the good times roll.

Who dat say dey gonne beat dem Saints?

:-)

K T Cat said...

Oh, I almost forgot. I've been back to K-Paul's twice since then, each time remembering going there with you. That was such a great weekend. Thanks, amigo.

Tots said...

A Saints game would be a blast. They have so much character as a team and I am glad to see them actually winning instead of hugging last place like they used to.

Cooking fish outside is definitely the way to go. THE WIFE hates fish and any fish smell in the house drives her nuts, so grilling or cooking outside is pretty much the only way I can partake.