Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish

Here's another take on this one: Rather than use the dry seasonings, put the catfish filets in a shallow bowl and cover with the entire contents of a small bottle of Tabasco sauce. You read that right - Tabasco sauce! If the fish isn't all covered, turn the filets over and move them around from time to time, to make sure the entire surface of the fish spends some time under the hot sauce. Marinate at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, up to 1 hour. Remove from the Tabasco (which you can now discard) and wipe off excess with your fingers. Dredge fish in plain cornmeal, then proceed with cooking. Amazingly, the fish will be tangy and well seasoned, but not terribly hot. You have to try it to believe it, but we love it this way - less hot than most Cajun seasoning, but tangy.

I did not make this, but I make something similar, and it is not bland. You don't need the bacon or the cornmeal though. Make a seasoning rub of 3 parts cajun seasoning to 2 parts seasoning salt (Lawry's is good) to one park black pepper. Put the seasoning in a plastic bag, and put the catfish pieces in one by one. Shake until coated. Heat a non-stick pan and spray it with olive oil spray. Cook catfish for just 3 minutes per side. Warning: This is four alarm spicy, but that is what I like. So yummy.

You've gotta be kidding. I made this exactly according to instructions and it was bland, bland, bland, bland. Honestly though, I should have known. Look at the recipe; see any binding? Any egg wash or dip in buttermilk? Nope. As a result, you get barely the thinnest layer of cornmeal on the fish. This tastes about the same as if you took a piece of catfish (a virtually flavorless fish BTW) and just sauteed it in some oil. The flavor of the bacon does not come through and none of the cajun spice is apparent. There are countless better ways to make this style dish, some of which are even in CL, but this is one of the lamest things I've ever cooked from CL.

This is a good recipe. It's not a big differece in taste from regular fried catfish in vegatable oil. I added some butter b/c it was not enough bacon grease. I will use this recipe again to have a slightly different taste of catfish.

Don't you hate it when someone comments on a recipe even though they've made a bunch of changes. Well, I guess that's me this time. I thought I had everything for this recipe only to find out my cajun seasoning had salt in it and I had run out of corn meal. I used my cajun seasoning and left out the added salt in the recipe and then used corn flour instead of corn meal. Then on top of all of that, I did not use bacon because I don't cook with pork. All that being said, the fish was wonderful. I only rank it three stars because of the I don't feel it is worthy of a special occasion, but I don't think pan fried catfish would ever be what I would serve for a special occasion. I will make this again!