To be perfectly honest, I am not a huge fan of catfish. There are people out there who love eating catfish and they will tell you various family gatherings involving a catfish fry somewhere down south that took place in the summer while the beer and whiskey flowed like the Mississippi river.
I ain’t one of these people. There seems to be some sort of long standing tradition that summer time, beer, and fish fry’s go hand in hand. Not, really sure why but perhaps one of these days I will pull up a chair, pour some whiskey and have a southern individual explain it all to me.
Okay, okay, so perhaps all this romancing over southern fish fry’s in summer are a bit too much for you and all you are looking for is a new way of eating your catfish. The most common way of eating catfish is by frying the fish. For me, that is the only way I can actually eat the fish and very infrequently, by the way. The texture is not the problem, it’s the flavor which does not really appeal to me.
That was until I encountered this recipe from Grandbaby Cakes. You take a bunch of seasoning and spices, mix them with your batter and then rather than frying the catfish you “fry” it in the oven. By “frying” the catfish in the oven instead of deep frying the fish, you still get a really crisp crust that is not only crunchy but bursting with flavor from all the seasoning and spices.
Be sure to give the recipe from Grandbaby Cakes a try and you will be as pleasantly surprised as I have been. Trying this recipe at least once might not make you a fan of catfish but you will at least really enjoy it for the first time.
Ingredients
- Nonstick olive oil spray
- ⅔ cup yellow cornmeal
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1½-2 teaspoons seasoned salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon lemon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 1 pound catfish fillets cut into smaller pieces
Get the full recipe with step by step instructions from Grandbaby Cakes and be sure to watch the video on their website that shows you how to prepare the recipe by clicking here Grandbaby Cakes.
