Blackened Catfish

I’m already behind with this blog! I blame the huge amounts of snow that have been dumped on the east coast in the last few weeks. You’d think that would make for more time to cook and bake, but what it meant was that I spent much more time running herd on a stir-crazy toddler.

Although I’ve cooked often, I’ve only baked once.  But in the interest of posting something, here is one of my recent meals. This is blackened catfish with couscous and broccoli. The pictures are from it cooking, not from it plated (I forgot to take pictures before we’d already started eating), but you’ll get the idea.

This meal is incredibly simple to make, as many fish dishes are, and is very tasty, to boot! I will also give you a recipe for making homemade couscous from semolina and durum wheat, but this takes a little longer. Also not complicated, but it does take longer.

Couscous Ingredients:
3 C of water
6 C of wheat semolina
1 t of salt
1 1/2 T whole wheat flour
1 C olive oil (or other veg oil)

Important to making couscous from semolina instead of using the instant kind is “pre” steaming the durum grains. If you don’t have a steamer, I cannot recommend high enough getting one! I have a great big one, and also a rice cooker that has a steaming attachment. And of course making couscous from instant organic is fine, too, but the spirit of The DIY Kitchen is to do as much as possible yourself from scratch.

Directions:
Bring the 3 cups of water to a boil in a steamer. In a separate bowl, pour in the semolina, then add the flour and salt and 1 C of boiling water. Mix thoroughly, letting the ingredients cool just enough to touch with your hands. Press the mixture through a sieve, removing the excess water. Transfer the mixture to the top portion of the steamer and steam for 30 minutes. Remove from steamer and return to the bowl. Break up the semolina with a fork until fluffy. Add the oil and remaining water from the steamer. You may need to add additional water, because you want the semolina to be quite wet. Return mixture to the bottom part of the steamer (or a pot, at this point) and cook for another 20 minutes. Some people recommend not using a lid during the entire process, as it can make the couscous mushy. I like to leave the lid on during the first step and take it off during the second. But experiment and see what works for you.

Once the couscous is prepared, you can do anything with it that you would do with instant couscous. For this meal, I left it alone, because there was going to be plenty of spice with the catfish.

Blackened Catfish

This recipe is quite a bit simpler. You can pick your own mix of spices, but here’s what I used:

Catfish filets (obviously)
Paprika (2 T)
Chili pepper (1 T)
Cayenne pepper (1 t)
Garlic powder (1 t)
Cumin (1 t)
Salt (1/2 t)
Pepper (1/2 t)

I’ve listed them in descending order from how I used them, but definitely experiment until you find the taste sensation that matches your buds. Measurements given are suggestions, not requirements! Mix the spices in a bowl and coat one or both sides (your choice) of the catfish filets with the spices.

Cooking the catfish is incredibly simple. Coat a frying pan with olive oil or another vegetable oil and heat to medium-high. If you’ve only coated one side of the filets with spice, place the spice side down first to season the oil. Cook for three minutes, then flip and cook for another three minutes.

Pictures to be posted soon….