ROUSES.COM
17
Mississippi
Oven-Fried Mississippi Catfish
I’ve made fish tacos with this oven-fried catfish, I’ve
served it at a grown-up dinner party with fancy mac-
and-cheese, and I’ve eaten it straight off the baking pan
dipped into a jar of tartar sauce. No one ever misses the
extra oil.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
1
pound Mississippi farm-raised catfish, rinsed, dried,
and cut into 2-inch strips
½
cup Rouses low-fat milk
⅛
cup Creole or other grainy mustard
¾
cup yellow cornmeal (any grind works)
1
teaspoon Rouses salt
½
teaspoon Rouses black pepper
¼
teaspoon cayenne pepper
2
tablespoons Rouses olive or canola oil, divided
HOW TO PREP
In a medium-size bowl, soak the catfish in the milk for 30 minutes
at room temperature. Drain the catfish and coat it evenly with
the mustard.
Preheat the oven to 500º
In another medium-size bowl, combine the cornmeal, salt, black
pepper, and cayenne, stirring well to combine.
Brush the baking pan with 1 tablespoon oil. One at a time, dredge
each piece of fish through the cornmeal mixture, shake off the
extra cornmeal, and place them on the baking pan.
Bake the fish until the undersides are golden, about 7 minutes.
Drizzle remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over the fish; then
carefully turn each piece over and bake for another 7 minutes, or
until cooked through.
RECIPE,
try me!
from Manchac’s few existing fishermen in the wintertime when crabbing is
slow and there’s time to run trotlines. “But there’s not enough catfish out there
to supply Middendorf ’s, and there aren’t enough fishermen to catch them,”
Horst says.
Besides solving the supply issue, catfish farming grants farmers — and the chefs
like Horst with whom they collaborate — some control over the size, flavor, and
texture of the fish they produce. “When you have a farm-raised product, at least
you get consistency, and the customer is demanding that today,” Horst says. He
also notes that, while he loves wild-caught fish in general, “If we kill everything
in the wild there won’t be any wildlife out there anymore.”
The Pfeifers work with a farm northeast of the Mississippi Delta that uses every
part of the animal, from barbel to tail fin. Once the fish have been processed,
leftovers can be boiled down and their oil extracted for making bio-diesel.
Environmental groups have long lauded U.S. catfish farming practices as eco-
friendly. Catfish ponds are relatively economical in their water usage, and the
feed: yield ratio in catfish farming is strong.
Neither Horst nor Karen had ever stepped foot into Middendorf ’s until the day
before they made an offer on the restaurant. Today, hearing them speak to the
myriad ways in which running the seafood destination has changed their lives
is like bearing witness to a spiritual awakening. Karen never looks back and is
busy digging in to the restaurant’s rich history. For her, it’s a full-circle story:
her first job was waitressing at a seafood restaurant with laminated menus like
those at Middendorf ’s.
Horst is grateful that the opportunity presented itself at a time when he was
mature enough as a chef to forego culinary experimentation for…well, for
pristinely fried catfish that needed nothing but a willing steward to keep it in
production. “When I bought Middendorf ’s, I would say 90% of my friends
thought I went crazy,” Horst remembers. “Maybe it was a calling for us at a time
when we were able to deal with it. I had to learn Middendorf ’s. I didn’t have to
teach Middendorf ’s something or change the recipes. Just go back to basics, to
what Middendorf ’s already was.”
A friend from the East Coast recently marveled at how
even the pickiest kids get to participate in the local food
culture here. “Fried catfish is like the chicken nuggets of
the Gulf Coast,” my friend said. “And restaurants don’t
even have to put it on the kids’ menu because it’s good
enough for grown-ups too.”
I laughed and then recalled
all the places I’ve shared
baskets of fried catfish
with my son, who indeed
counts it as one of his
favorite foods. Most
recently we did so at
Bully’s Restaurant in
Jackson, MS, with sides
of macaroni and cheese
and rutabagas. The Rouse
family loves The Dinner Bell
Restaurant in McComb, MS.
photo by
Sara Essex Bradley
