When the dinner bell rings you might not usually be a catfish lover, but after filleting out a stack of blue cats and cooking them up you’ll be singing a different tune if you have some prime catfish recipies in your repertoire. The fillets from every species of fish has its own unique flavor and consistency, and that of the blues is clean, white, firm, and meaty. Maybe this is a result of the varied diets these fish enjoy or maybe it’s their tendency to swim up in the water column to hunt versus mucking around on bottom, but for whatever reason, these fish taste shockingly good.
Naturally, how you prep this piscatorial pleasure will have a dramatic impact on how pleased you are with the final product. And there’s a wide range of methods ranging from fried to baked to caked. Ready to get cooking?
Battering the Blues
Few methods of cooking up a fish are as quintessential as battering and frying. This works well with just about everything that swims, most definitely including the blue catfish. Everyone has their own favorite when it comes to mixing up the batter but we’ll bet that if you follow this method you’ll soon be racing right back out there to catch more catfish.
Ingredients
- Blue catfish fillets (one pound; double, triple, or quadruple as appropriate)
- Bread or Panko crumbs
- Corn meal
- Flour
- One egg
- Old Bay
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Olive oil for frying
- Tartar sauce
To make the breading mix a half cup of Panko or bread crumbs with a half cup of corn meal, then spice to taste with the Old Bay, garlic powder, and onion powder. Using a tablespoon of Old Bay and a teaspoon each of garlic and onion is a good starting point. Then cut the fillets into nugget-sized morsels. Beat the egg in a bowl, add in the fish nuggets, and stir so all are thoroughly covered. Dredge the nuggets in flour, then again in the egg, and then through the breading mix. Drop into hot olive oil and fry until golden brown. Dip in tartar sauce for serving.
Make the Catfish Cakes
We first experienced this culinary delight at the Annapolis Powerboat Show, where blue catfish cakes were being prepared on-site for taste testing. It was right around dinnertime, there were lots of free fish cakes available, and the show was about to end… and tasting one cake led to a full-on feeding frenzy. Five or six fish cakes later everyone agreed that blue cats taste great (and then we adjourned to Pusser’s).
Ingredients
- Blue catfish fillets (one pound; double, triple, or quadruple as appropriate)
- Bread or Panko crumbs
- One egg
- Mayonnaise
- Old Bay
- Old Bay hot sauce (optional)
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Oil for frying
Steam or poach the fish, allow it to drain, then break the fillets apart in a large bowl. Add in a quarter cup of bread or Panko crumbs, an egg, two tablespoons of mayo, and a couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Then shake in Old Bay and hot sauce in amounts appropriate to your taste. (Rule of thumb: more Old Bay is always better—right up until it isn’t). Mix thoroughly, form into cakes, then fry in hot oil until golden brown. Tip: These go great with cocktail sauce on the side.
Blackened Blue Catfish
Blackening any fish can be a little risky—get it wrong, and you’ll smoke out your kitchen and possibly the entire house. Get it right, however, and you’ll be serving a meal fit for a king. The trick here is to remember that ventilation is key. You can try turning on the exhaust fan or throwing open a window, but truth be told the best move is to do this cooking outdoors on a grill burner.
Ingredients
- Chilled blue catfish fillets (one pound; double, triple, or quadruple as appropriate)
- Half a stick of butter
- Blackening season (Zatarain’s is great)
Melt the butter and mix in the blackening season, enough to thicken the butter’s consistency. Lay the catfish fillets on tin foil or wax paper, and douse every inch with the mix. Wait a minute or two until the butter firms up, flip the fillets, and douse the other side. Bring a skillet (cast-iron is best) up to high heat; test by dripping a drop of butter onto the surface. The butter should immediately sizzle, dance, and turn black.
***At this point ensure sufficient ventilation!! If you are indoors, you will need to move the volume of air approximate to that of a redlining twin-turbo Cessna to prevent smoking out the house!!***
Drop the fillets onto the hot skillet and stand back. After 90 seconds to two minutes flip the fillet and blacken the other side. This should be plenty of cook-time for average eating-size fish but thick fillets may take slightly longer. When cooked through, remove the fillets from the pan then call the fire department to cancel any false alarms the neighbors may have phoned in.
Catching Your Own Catfish
You say you have family and friends coming to town, and you need to feed a big flock? Then you’d better start catching those catfish asap and keep at it until the cooler is full. Yes, you can catch a catfish on any old rod, just as you can catch a rockfish on a cane pole with some string and a bent paperclip if you try long enough. Use the right tool for the right job, however, and you’ll catch a whole lot more. Okuma has sponsored our endeavors to help us anglers catch more catfish this year (thanks folks!), and we’ve gotta say, their Cat Slayer rods are ideal for the task.
The unidirectional E-glass UFR tip of the Cat Slayer is sensitive but shockingly strong, so you can win the tug of war even when it’s with a trophy-sized blue cat. Whether you’re after maximum size or maximum numbers, the night bite is often the right bite when it comes to catfish. To maximize your effectiveness after the sun has gone down, rods with a UV-activated finish that provide maximum visibility will give you a leg up. Can you guess who’s got ‘em? Yup, you know it—using Okuma’s Cat Slayers means you’ll be able to see every wiggle and twitch in that rod. Plus, the heavy-duty stainless-steel guides and hook keepers are as rugged as they come. If you want to crush those catfish and pile ‘em high, a set of Cat Slayers is the ticket.
Iki Jime: Quality Counts
Who wouldn’t want to make a good fish taste even better? Care for your catch properly and your fillets will go from marvelous to Michelin-level. The moment you crank that catfish in on your Cat Slayer, apply some Iki Jime. Spike its brain and slice through the collar and gills. Then place the fish in a bucket of water and allow it to bleed out for several minutes. Finally, pack it in ice. When you slice off the fillet you’ll find it’s lighter in color and when you eat it, you’ll never skip catfish Iki Jime again.