Fried Catfish!

I'm confident in the kitchen, but not when it comes to fried food. It's pretty intimidating! The whole "I could burn my apartment down if this goes wrong" thing is pretty scary, BUT I've had some frying success since July. I've gotten pretty good at Pioneer Woman's fried chicken, and I just tried fried catfish, and boy was it good, so I wanted to share the recipe with you.

Not the greatest picture ever, but you get the idea- it's yummy! (Even if I did make ginormous hush puppies)

Daddy's Hush Puppies (a family favorite)

1 whole onion (finely chopped)

1/8 cup oil (just a dab)

3/4-1/2 cup Self Rising Flour

3/4-1/2 cup Corn Meal

(you want equal parts of flour and corn meal)

1 Egg

Salt and Pepper generously

Milk

1. Beat egg

2. Add dry ingredients (this includes onions)

3. Add milk until it reaches a thick pancake consistency (or cake batter consistency- it'll be

kind of thin)

4. Fry -- I don't have good instructions for this, but tonight I fried them with the oil at 375.

They don't take long, just let them fry until they are golden brown and flip them in between.

Fried Catfish (I adapted this from a recipe on Food Network.com)

3/4 cup Yellow Cornmeal

1/8 cup All-Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Seasoned Salt

1/3 teaspoon Ground Red Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper

4 Catfish Filets

Oil for frying

1. Mix all the seasonings, cornmeal, and flour together.

2. The original recipe didn't call for this, but I seasoned the filets with seasoned salt and

pepper before dredging. I also cut the catfish into smaller pieces.

3. Dredge filets in the cornmeal mixture.

4. Fry -- with the oil at 375 degrees, I did about 2 minutes per side.

Another tip for frying-- I use my dutch oven for frying, and I don't go too crazy on the oil. I can't tell you the exact amount but I think it's probably around 3/4" or so. With the dutch oven, too, you can put the top on while your frying-- but beware, that makes it get a lot hotter in the pot, so you don't want it on high heat or anything when you do that. And I generally never put it on high heat when I'm frying- it just gets the oil too hot, I think (but this is a frying novice speaking, here). Be careful!

I hope ya'll enjoy these recipes :) We sure did!

Love from Houston,

J & L