Roger's catfish stew

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 pounds Bacon
2 larges Onions; chopped (preferably Vidalia)
2 cans (16 oz) of tomatoes
2 cans (small) of tomato paste
3 pounds Clean and deboned catfish (up to 5)
Rice is optional

Directions

Preparation

I recommend you purchase catfish fillets from a seafood store. Don't one time and you will see why.

In a large frying pan, fry the bacon until crispy. Remove and set aside.

Sauté the onions in the bacon grease for about five minutes. At this point, the temptation to eat the bacon and the onions may overtake most people. I have allowed for consumption of up to one-half of the bacon and the onions prior to making the stew. Enjoy.

In a large pot bring several quarts of water to a boil. There is leeway here based upon the amount of fish you purchased and people you plan to serve. You can always add more water to the stew. This is not science. (It IS dadgum near a religion, though).

Put the catfish in the boiling water and boil until the fish starts coming apart, about ten minutes. At this point if you did not take my advice and purchase fillets, you need to start bone fishing. The easiest way to do this is to put a large container beneath a colander and pour what you have through it. You should collect most of the water back in the lower pot. Put it back on the burner while you pick out the bones from the fish.

After you have picked out the bones, put the fish back into the boiling water.

Crumble the bacon and add it and the rest of the ingredients to the boiling water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let this simmer for about an hour before serving.

Now, at this point you have two optional items. The first is Tabasco® sauce. Myself, I like to add it here. It is real easy to overdo it, so go slow if you decide to add it. You can always add more.

You cannot take it out. My wife and children do not care for the taste or the heat. so I tend to leave it out and set out a bottle of the liquid fire to add to my bowl. My friend Brady Hair makes a wonderful hot sauce from Charleston Hots peppers. He makes some from time to time and supplies me with some. It has all the heat and a better flavor. I will see if he will let me post his recipe here.

Now, rice is another bone of contention. Some folks like to add to the stew. Others like to cook it separately and pour the stew over it. I prefer the latter. It's too easy to forget about the rice and the stuff burns on the bottom of the pot. Incidentally, catfish stew and hog cooking are often accompanied by the consumption of adult beverages. Forgetting about the stuff is a lot more frequent than you might imagine.

Posted to TNT - Prodigy's Recipe Exchange Newsletter by Jayni <poobery@...> on Oct 31, 1997

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