I have a confession to make. I’m a failure as a Cajun. I have never fried fish! My Mom’s and my neighbor Mrs. Nannette’s fried fish are the best, so I just nom all their fish. But finally I set out to remedy that! While I didn’t have the great gulf fish I grew up on, trout from my CSA worked pretty well (and gave me a chance to try taking the skin off a fish for the first time!).
And yes. That is Monsters University mac and cheese.
For the fish:
- Zataran’s fish fri
- 2-3 eggs
- Salt & pepper
- Brown mustard
- Milk
- Vegetable oil
- Fish of your choice
- Hot sauce
- To begin with, prepare your fish. If it’s already filleted, just chop it into portions you like. I like smaller pieces of fish. In my case, my fish had skin on one side. What you do, is cut the tip of the skin away from the fish at its thinner side (where the tail would be), then slide your knife between the skin and the fish, pulling the skin taut with your other hand. I watched youtube videos to prepare and frankly, it wasn’t that hard!
- In a tupperware container (big enough to fit your fish), pour out some fish fri. I probably did about a cup or two. You can eyeball it based on how much fish you’re frying. I was only doing two fillets.
- In a separate bowl, scramble your eggs, then add just a small amount of mustard (1 tbsp or so, more if you prefer), and a dash of milk (maybe ¼-½ cup). I also added a couple squirts of Louisiana hot sauce and some shakes of salt and pepper.
- Take your fish slices, dip your fish slices in your egg wash, then place them in the tupperware with the fish fri. Close the tupperware and shake! Once the fish is well battered, it’s ready to go!
- In a deep, heavy bottomed sauce plan, dutch oven, or in my case, cast iron skillet, add enough vegetable oil to cover your fish. In my case, that was about 2 inches of oil. Heat the oil til it’s quite hot, but don’t over do it. I tossed in a bit of fish fri to test the hotness.
- Once your oil is hot enough, drop in your fish! I found it took about 8 or so minutes for my fish, but it’s ready when it has a nice brown crust. I turned my fish over just to mix it up, but as long as the fish is covered with oil, you don’t really have to do that.
- Then EAT.
For the hush puppies:
- ½ cup cornmeal
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ tsp cayenne (you can also add paprika, garlic powder, etc).
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ cup buttermilk (I just made my own buttermilk with milk and lemon juice)
- 1 egg
- a few green onions
- salt & pepper
- You can use the same pan/oil as your fish for this recipe.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine. Make tbsp sized scoops and plop in hot oil. Turn over when browned (about 2-3 minutes), cook for same amount of time, then eat!
YAY!
sneakyguacamole 