Awesome Fried Catfish

One of the reasons I write this silly blog is to keep notes of things I like and things I think. A while back, I made fried catfish nuggets, but used a hybrid recipe. We decided to make it again last night. Figuring I'd blogged about it, I looked here, but no luck. I searched my Catch account, but no luck there. I guessed and guessed right last night, but I don't want to have to guess again, so here's the magic.

First, start with Terry Thompson's Mustard Fried Catfish recipe.

Substitute Dixie Fry for the corn flour. So that's a cup of corn meal, a cup of flour, a cup of bread crumbs and a bag (cup) of Dixie Fry. And that's a winner! Everyone loved it.

Cooking notes: Use lots of oil in the pan. 1", at least. I tried to time the nuggets, but can only guess at the actual timing of the frying. Once a piece of white bread starts bubbling upon immersion, the oil is ready. At that point, 3 minutes on a side for the catfish seemed to work fine. Take one out and try it. The Louisiana Seafood Bible says lots of people over-fry their fish, but I'd rather have slightly overcooked catfish than undercooked.

You will need more breading than mustard-egg mixture. We needed a second recipe of breading and only one of the mustard-egg coating.

Equipment notes: Before I started last night, I suggested to my wife that we ought to buy a deep fryer. It was the day before Father's Day and I was dreaming of other delicious, fried foods. She argued against it and was right. A monster skillet with plenty of oil will do the trick. Get the vegetable oil from Costco and you won't feel bad about tossing the leftover oil into the trash.

As Chef Jacob says, it's all about the taste!