Native American Catfish With Pine Nuts

Submitted by MarBear

"From New Mexico Magazine recipes. I like to use this on trout as well."

 

• Ready In: 13mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 4 fillets
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 59.14 ml pine nuts, plus
• 29.58 ml pine nuts
• 118.29 ml yellow cornmeal
• 59.14 ml flour
• 4.92 ml salt
• 2.46 ml cayenne pepper
• 1.23 ml ground cumin
• 4 catfish fillets
• 59.14 ml vegetable oil

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spread pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast in oven for about 5 minutes or until golden brown.Cool.
3. Grind 1/4 cup of pine nuts and reserve remaining for garnish.
4. Mix ground pine nuts,cornmeal, flour, salt, cayenne pepper and cumin in a shallow dish.
5. Dredge fillets in the pine nut mixture.Set aside.
6. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Fry catfish fillets two at a time in the hot oil for 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork .
7. Sprinkle fillets with whole pine nuts and serve.

Reviews

[collinsc]

We made this in our Middle School 7th and 8th Grade advisory. The students each participated from measuring, chopping, and blending to cutting the filets, breading and frying.

 

[carons67]

Excellent flavor! We didn't think it was bland. We could taste the cayenne pepper, but it wasn't overwhelming. After toasting the pinenuts, I have them three pulses in my Ninja. Should have stopped at two, because they got a bit pasty. I'm gluten intolerant, so I used white rice flour in place of wheat flour. Batter fried up nice and crisp in the iron skillet.

 

[Paul H.]

Not bad. I used catfish fillets and it turned out pretty good. The flavor was a bit bland but the texture was exceptional. We do a lot of fish fries in the summer so I was kinda looking for something I could experiment with. This gave me a few more ideas for next summer. Our usual deep-fried catfish is great but this was a new perspective, crisp, thick crust, crunchy, textured, but not very flavorful. Instead of these spices think I'll probably grind the pine nuts for our usual fish-fry recipe where we use an egg bath before the dredging and deep-frying.<br/>The advice on chopping helped a good bit - less processing - go for the crunch if you think you'd like it.

 

[Darkhunter]

This is an excellent way to fry fish. Had some lovely catfish fillets and used those. Just as Bergy said, you have to be very careful when grinding the pine nuts. I think I will invest in one of the old time choppers that you hit on top so you can control the final size of whatever you are chopping. Thnx for posting Mar-Bear, we'll have this again.

 

[Bergy]

The cornflour, pine nuts & spices make a delightful crisp crust that compliments the fish. I only used 1 tbsp of oil in the pan to fry the fish. Be careful when you grind your pinenuts - if you grind them too fine they will turn into a paste. Thanks for posting this lovely recipeChef#220420 mar-mar