Southern Fish Fry

My Fish Fry Recipe!

I know it seems like I recently posted about a fish fry recipe but the point was to illustrate that you can either purchase a simple fish fry from a box, or you can wait for my perfected Southern Fish Fry recipe. You see, it’s taken me almost 3 years to break down the truth and the simplicity of the succulent Cat Fish Fry recipes, cooked in the south. Places like Schooner’s, Bay Town or Chicken Express have the best southern fish fry batter that leaves the filet’s crispy yet moist, and very sweet and buttery. They’re fantastic. Apparently, however, all of the restaurants in the south have known the secret for years but they’re just not so hip on sharing it. To make matters worse, even the Chinese Buffets, in the south, know the secrets to frying great Cat Fish. I’ve heard everything from a pre-fry brine or overnight buttermilk soak (which actually pulls out the fishy taste) to Italian dressing and mustard marinades. It’s insane. The problem was, though those marinades provide a pretty decent taste for the fish, it still wasn’t what I was looking for, and I tried them all.

The Fish Fry Secret

Truthfully I about killed over when I figured out how easy this recipe really is. Nothing to it, AT ALL! The crazy thing is, I actually tried a version like this before but for some reason it didn’t turn out right. So I dismissed this recipe and moved on, wasting another year picking apart other ideas. Hilarious right? Well, not to me. Normally I can pick apart almost any recipe in seconds and tell you exactly what’s in it. Anyone that has been following my recipes can attest to that by now. I don’t read cook books unless I absolutely have to. But some secrets aren’t in print, and some printed recipes just list “secret” in the title just to get you to read their content, and usually they aren’t any where near the vicinity of the correct ingredients for that particular recipe. Anyway, short and sweet, I’ve GOT IT! I’m very pleased and proud to announce that I do. However, I’m embarrassed that it took me this long for this simple recipe. But who’s really going to deny the craving for catfish Po’Boy that looks like this…?

Southern Fish Fry Ingredients:

1 Fish Filet (medium 10 to 12 oz)
1 cup Yellow Corn Meal
1/4 cup Yellow Corn Flour or Masa
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Black Pepper

EGG WASH
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk

Cut your filet into desired portions, then egg wash the fish and batter in the Corn Meal. Let it rest for 5 minutes, then fry the filet portions at 375 degrees until golden brown. Serve and enjoy this traditional Southern Fish Fry recipe today.

Cooking an Artichoke

Grooming an Artichoke!

Preparing an Artichoke is no big deal. You just need a sharp knife, and I mean Chef sharp! An Artichoke is a very tough budding flower from an extraordinary plant so you have to bust through the meaty exterior to get to that wholesome tender center. Not to mention that the leaves have thorns at their tips. So, the first thing you want to do, after you get your seasoned water boiling, is cut through the base and sever the stem, and then expose all of the pedals by cutting the leaf tips. This Allows the seasoned boiling water to penetrate through the entire Artichoke when it’s fully submerged, thus tenderizing the heart and making the leaves eatable. Boil for approximately 8 minutes then serve an Artichoke with melted butter and mayonnaise.

Artichoke Recipe Favorites

My Favorite ways to eat an Artichoke usually involves the hearts. And, because I’m lazy, I’ll just break down and by a jar of pickled or marinated Artichoke hearts and incorporate them into my recipes.

Here’s a few, with links if you want to look into making a few these your selves. Broccoli and Cheese Dip with Marinated Artichoke Hearts, Spinach and Artichoke Dip or Spread and one I haven’t added yet is Roasted Artichoke Hearts on my Alfredo Sauce Pizza. So that’s just a free tip!

Artichoke Ingredients:

1 Artichoke
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Add enough water to a pot to fully submerge an Artichoke while it’s boiling.

Perfect Tempura Every Time

Tempura is Touchy!

Lets nail down the issues most people have with making Tempura, starting with buying it in a box. For the most part, you’re just buying a box of flour with a fancy picture on the front that shows you how good it could look if you buy their product. But does that make sense? You’ve got flour at home in your kitchen, right? Oh, maybe you need the directions on the back of the box. Wait, that doesn’t make sense either because you’ve got the web at your finger tips. You can just look it up. So here we are, you and I, and we’re going to get through this together.

Tempura in a Box

The truth is that no matter what the contents of that Tempura box are, flour, corn starch or whatever, the box directions are WRONG! Sure they give you a few pointers from step 1 to 3 but they don’t talk about a few key issues you will have if you don’t mix it in the right order, if you just use regular tap water or if you don’t keep your batter ice cold. That’s right. If you ignore any one of these 3 things, your Tempura is not going to turn out right.

Tempura Ingredients:

1 egg yoke
1 cup Tonic or Seltzer Water, Carbanated is the key
1 cup Flour

Mix the ingredients in a bowl over the top of another bowl full of ice water
Stir the liquids first, then add the flour and don’t over mix; leave it lumpy
Use ice cold Tonic or Seltzer water, not Tap, to get the batter to poof up

Watch the video tutorial and follow these simple instructions and you will have perfect Tempura, every single time.