Back in my previous life, I worked as a purchaser for an industrial hydraulic cylinder manufacturer. The company headquarters were in Youngstown, Ohio, and as a result, many of the suppliers I dealt with were from that area. Sales reps and company owners would make the trip from up north to Benton for sales calls or to push new products. They all had one thing in common, since they were on a trip down south, they had to eat at a catfish buffet.
They could not get enough of it. It seems that up north, catfish houses are a rare commodity, and when one can be found, the results are disappointing at best. Once they had a trip or two or three around one of our buffet lines, it became a required visit while in town. So, during my years working there, I was treated to a plethora of catfish lunches. If you are anything like me, you love a catfish buffet, and when it’s free and all you can eat, I would always take that as a personal challenge. I was going to eat… well… all I could possibly eat.
Of course, after consuming my body weight in fried brown foods, I felt like I was going to die just walking back to the car. The afternoon at work would be one of misery. I would sit in my chair, fighting to stay awake, and feeling like an anaconda that had just swallowed a sheep whole and was done eating for the month. I recently found a picture of myself at work there and I could not believe how round and fat my face was back then. That was a three or four plate trips around the buffet line face.
I would always notice how each plate became a little less enjoyable as I tested the limits on my stomach expansion, but that wasn’t going to stop me at the time. I never considered or cared how I was going to feel afterwards, and I certainly wasn’t thinking about the massive amounts of bad carbs, bad fats, and calories I was ingesting. Those deep fried breaded meals were a nuclear bomb of health detriments, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease. It truly was a one-stop-shop for all your future medical bills.
And the sad thing is it didn’t have to be that way. Wild catfish is low calorie, high protein, and is loaded with vitamin B12, selenium, and omega-3 fatty acids. The catfish you get at a restaurant will always be farm raised on a diet of corn meal and soybean oil, not to mention deep fried, so once again if you want to eat a delicious meal that is also going to allow you to function like a normal human afterwards, you will have to take matters into your own hands.
The first thing is to source your catfish. The best method… go catch your own, or have an uncle like I do that does nothing but fish every day of the week and relieve his freezer of overflow pressure. If you don’t have those options, look for wild caught product of USA on the label from trusted sources. Fish labels lie more than any other in the food industry, so be sure your fish source is one you can trust. The second thing is the cooking method. No more breading and deep frying. I know, I know, it’s the only way you’ve ever eaten catfish.
I have a secret to tell you about deep fried foods. They all taste the same. Doesn’t matter what you fry, if you coat it in cornmeal and treat it like a Batman villain by dropping it in a vat of superheated oil, it’s just going to taste like cornmeal flash fried in oil. So we are going to make a rub and cook ours in the oven, then finish with a broiler. Now you will actually get to taste catfish, and not the five-year-old oil from a restaurant deep fryer.
For sides, I have a low-carb version of coleslaw I will include below, and my jicama fries and smoky dipping sauce from an earlier article. I also have a quick and easy tartar sauce recipe so you can control the health aspects of that dipping sauce for your fish. It’s nice to have a traditional catfish style dinner again, without all the traditional side effects that come with it. You can eat this and still keep your pants buttoned, which is a nice option to have for the afternoons at work. I hope you enjoy:
Catfish:
- 2 lbs wild caught catfish
- 2 tsp pepper
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup grass fed unsalted butter melted
Place a large cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. I used two skillets at the same time. Mix all the spices in a bowl until well blended:
Use a large tray and several layers of paper towels to pat dry the catfish:
Put the catfish in a large bowl, drizzle the catfish with the melted butter and then mix with the spices until well coated:
Place a pat of butter in each hot skillet and cook the catfish 10 minutes per side. While they are cooking, prep a large cooking tray with foil and place a rack on it:
Set your oven to the top broiler, place the catfish on the top rack in the oven, and broil 1 -2 minutes per side:
I like to make the coleslaw and tartar sauce the day before to give the flavors time to set up:
Coleslaw:
- ½ head cabbage rough chopped – I prefer red cabbage for the color
- 3 carrots grated
- 1/3 cup stevia in the raw
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ½ cup avocado oil mayonnaise
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Combine all ingredients and store in the fridge.
Tartar sauce:
- 1 cup avocado oil mayo
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 dill pickles, finely chopped
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped dill
- 5 capers, finely chopped
- Pinch of salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients, then adjust to taste with salt and pepper.
See more of the Shirtless Chef recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.