Flyin' Al: Cookin' Cats

Ray writes in:

Good question Ray!

There are no shortage of ways to prepare catfish, but like any fish there are a few things you need to watch out for first.

The term 'fresh-fish' has unfortunately become an oxymoron in the last few years. In this day and age, our water ways are far from being pristine and pollution-free. The problem with any type of freshwater fish is that you *can* get trace elements of heavy metals and other minor pollutants in your food if the freshwater fish is not correctly prepared.
Make sure no matter how you cook the fish that you allow any fluids from the cooking process to run off of the fish. Some people wrap freshwater fish in foil and throw it over the heat. While this is fast and convenient, it means that anything you 'cook off' the fish will puddle up in the foil and cook back into the fish. This is what can make you sick with any freshwater fish like Bass, Trout, Carp, Cats, or even panfish like Bluegill and Perch.
Besides using an 'open' cooking method you will find that catfish can be prepared in a number of ways.

Before you start cooking, some notes about cleaning Catfish.
Like all fish and people, you tend to get a fair amount of Lactic Acid in your muscles after a good strenuous thrashing about. Since the fish takes a brutal beating between the moment it is hooked and the time you get it to the boat, you want to keep the fish alive as long as possible before you clean them. Fortunately, the catfish does not breathe the exact same way as most fish - catfish can gulp air when they are not submerged. You can use this to your advantage because catfish can be put on a 'stringer' and placed back in the water while you hunt down some more forage.
Unlike a Trout or Bass, which will die on a stringer within an hour or so, catfish will generally last the majority of your fishing day if you keep them in the water where they can get some oxygen and keep the sun off thier backs. An occasional removal of the stringer is ok as the time out of the water will do little to harm the fish - that is harm the fish in a way which would make it less delicious to you or I.
Once you get the catfish back to your domicile things will have to get ugly. The best way to gut a catfish is to avoid cutting any of the internal organs. If you take a close look at the [side] fins of the catfish, these are the fins on the side of the fish near the gills, you will see that a bone protrudes from the fin towards the rear of the fish. Now, draw an imaginary line from the end of that bone to the most forward point on the bottom of the catfish's head where the skin is soft. Cut down this line on both sides of the fish until the cuts meet under the head. Now carefully cut the skin from the center underside of the fish to the anus, taking care to only cut skin and not anything else. If you have done this right, the body cavity can be opened and all the entrails will be intact.
(I realize this is a bit graphic, but it serves a purpose)
Grab the fish from behind the [side] fins and flip it over so that its innards are essentially hanging down. (They will not really hang down per say) Now go ahead and remove the entrails by starting from the anus and cleaning out the body cavity as you move towards the head.
While some people just cut off the catfish head and throw out the entrails with it, this is not recommended as you may need something to hold on to when you try to skin the beastie.
The idea here is to remove as much of the fishes internals as possible without breaking anything. A fish's gut can contain some nasty bacteria and toxins, and if you disturb parts of the digestive system you may see some orangish-yellow fluid seeping out - this is the bile of the fish and it *can* make the fish taste a bit odd. Note that in this discussion I use the term fish - not catfish. Generally it is a good rule to clean fish without disturbing the innards whenever possible. You may find that fish purchased at the store may not taste as well as the same fish caught by you in the same area. This is not so much due to the time between when the fish was captured and you ate it, but is generally the result of quick cleaning by some teenage store clerk which affects the taste of the meat.

Frying:
This is best done with the fish either filleted or at least skinned, remove the entrails and the head first. Personally I like a bit of bread crumbs with garlic, cilantro, and just a bit of parmesan cheese mixed in - low salt, low fat, great taste.
After filleting the fish, just rinse it with water and roll it in the seasoned bread crumbs. Drop it in a medium-hot pan onto some butter or margarine, a little goes a long way here. This will also not work too well if you have not filleted the fish first - something about the bones changes the meat when you cook it. It is also not recommended that you put more than two or three small fillets together at a time - you want them to cook quickly and evenly as possible. After you cook a set of fillets, rinse out the pan before you make another set. It is not a real good idea to just keep cooking all the fish in the same drippings over and over again. Cook the fish until it just finishes turning from pink to white on the inside of the fillet - with a gas stove this can take from 3 to 5 minutes. Do not linger here, the faster you cook it the more tender it will be. If you want to fry your catfish, you can use anything from a 18-incher to something in the 3 to 4 pound category. Anything smaller is not worth the effort , and anything larger will cook up nice an rubbery no matter how you fry it. A 20 to 30 inch fish is the prime size for Channel Cats.

Deep frying:
I do not care what anyone says - this is the best way I know to eat catfish. As a training professional mountain biker I know the advantages of a low fat diet, and while this is not a *real* calorie-crusher, deep-fried catfish has got to be the best mother-nature can offer.
Using the bread crumb concoction from above, I deep-fry the fish in small batches with vegetable oil for exactly 3.5 minutes. Make the pieces you deep-fry no larger than 3-by-3 inches if you can. Even if you get a beastie fish in the 5-pound and over range you can be assured that it will deep-fry into a tasty treat. If you like chicken, you will love deep-fried channel cats.

Salmon Recipies:
What? Wait a minute. Wasn't this about catfish?
Perhaps it is me, but I have found that using recipies for Salmon on catfish will usually yield the same results. While catfish have no where near the diversity of taste you get from a good salmon, the meat of the catfish and salmon seem to go well with the same sauces like Hollandaise, Bernaise, white sauce, anything with Wine in it, and even spiced and fried like blackened fish.
To experiment, I get a filleted channel catfish and pick out a recipie for salmon - using all the same ingredients and cook times. Using a bar-b-que salmon recipie is one of the best methods no matter what sauce or seasoning you use. Remember no matter what recipie you use, to avoid cooking the fish in an enclosed method. For instance, if you are going to cook on a bar-b-que do not wrap the fish, but cook it right on the grill, or use a fish rack where you can put the fish in between two metal racks. Also, if you cook on a grill be sure to coat the fish with water or some liquid to keep it from sticking to the BBQ. Have a water bottle handy to extinguish any flare-ups from the BBQ so that you do not end up with a charred, rubbery meal.

Oriental Style:
Not to categorize foods by race, this is just a twist on and old sauce commonly used by some of our friends in Korea, Vietnam, and China.
You will need scallions (green 'stick' onions), water chestnuts, garlic, ginger, a bit of corn starch, bamboo shoots, garlic, and garlic. You may want to add soy sauce for a bit more flavor, but be careful because it can add too much salt to the equation. After you fillet the fish, cut the fillets down a bit so that you can get all the fish in a pan without any of it overlapping. Now, add about a cup or so of the scallions cut into 2-inch sections. Try to use the greenest parts of the scallion you can. Add as much garlic as you want - fresh garlic is just as good as dried garlic here. Add the ginger. Add a bit of water and soy sauce if you want, no more than the amount of scallions you added. (about a cup) Let this cook over REALLY high heat for about 2 to 3 minutes, and keep it moving. You may want to put the fish, scallions, water/soy, and garlic in all together after you preheated the pan.
After the fish starts to turn white and the edges start to curl up a bit, add the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts in any quantity you like.
Once they are stirred in, you can add little bits of corn starch to thicken it up. Be careful with the corn starch as it takes some time to start thickening - don't overdo it. Also, keep the heat up and keep the food moving so that nothing can burn. Like the other recipies, when the thickest part of the fish turns from pink to white the fish is cooked, about 5 minute total with a serious flame. About 7 minutes or so with an electric range.
Besides having relatively no fat, this is dynamite with rice and some soup.

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