I tried to make blackened catfish on the grill a few nights ago, but I was too miserly with my coals. I figured since all I needed to do was heat a single cast iron skillet, I could get away with fewer than usual coals and just pile them up in a cone under the pan.
Bzzzt. Wrong answer.
When Paul Prudhomme says get the pan hot, he means hot. In his cookbook, he tells you the pan cannot be too hot and you want to see white ash forming at the bottom of the pan from the oils used to season the skillet between uses. I didn't even get close.
The end result were catfish fillets boiled in butter. My wife loved them, but I was disappointed with the results. Cooking blackened anything is a dramatic affair with lots of smoke and usually a butter fire erupting in the pan as you pour more over the food. This was a bland event with the butter burbling away at the bottom and the fish lounging about in the lake of butter.
"[Paul Prudhomme] tells you the pan cannot be too hot"
ReplyDeleteI think he exaggerates a bit. When some friends tried cooking over a thermite fire some years ago, it was *certainly* too hot for *any* sort of foodstuff. Of course, there was also a serious danger of actually melting the frying pan.
And then there was the time we used the "Lens of Death" to toast marshmallows - that was much too hot, also.
[The Lens of Death is a 3' x 4' Fresnel lens that I keep in a dark, windowless garage when not in use. When it is in direct sunlight, it is useful for quickly melting small change, blasting holes in rocks, and similar amusements. But not so useful for cooking].
You're a nut! I wanna come along on your next campout!
ReplyDeleteKT,
ReplyDeleteLots of BBQ advice I read talks about searing meat and fish. Mrs. Daddy can't seem to get herself to use adequate heat, but I have no such issues.