Catfish Head Stew

[VinnysquidTX]

1 big catfish head (or you can use about 2lbs of fillets)
2 medium oinons
1 bell pepper
3 stalks chopped celery
3 cloves garlic

Season the fish with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Then, fry the fish in oil or butter until just lightly, lightly brown or tan. Remove the fish from the butter/oil and saute onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Then, fill the pot with what would be enough water to cover the fish good. Then, use cornstarch as a thickener not flour. Mix about 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in a cup or so of cold water until dissolved good and pour into pot. (You don't want the stew too thick.) Put your fish back into the pot and simmer about 30 minutes or so. Serve over cornbread or rice.

[Mythman]

Do you win a prize if you get one of the eyes in your bowl???

[Bigrock]

Thanks for the recipe Vinny. I appreciate that you left an OUT CLAUSE with the substitution of the fish filets. Mythman's comments have got me wondering...

[Pogo]

Okay, I can't stand it, gotta ask ---- have you *really* tried this?

[karstopo]

Do you use Catfish heads fresh or after they've been on a fence post for a while? Just kidding.
Stew sounds good and next time I get a good sized fish, I will try it.

[Dfusion]

Well, I HAD to look at this one. Just out of curiosity, do you leave the skin on? I think my wife would have a coniption if I cooked that in my kitchen.

[VinnysquidTX]

It sounds kinda weird, I know. Catfish head what? Well, my grandpa was a shrimper all his life. He also sold fish and would oyster during the season to sell out of his fishhouse. I would say I have eaten quite a bit of stuff that comes outta Galveston bay and this is just another one of those creole recipes (grandmother's from LA).

I always tried to take as much skin off the head as I could, but my grandpa leaves it on. It "adds flavor" according to him, and he's probably right.

[peterpan]

My father use to cook the "sopa de cabeca de bagre" (catfish head soup) back in Brazil when I was little. I guess it was good, I don't recall the taste of it...

[Kodiakk]

When I visited St. Thomas last summer our family friend that lives there made us fishhead soup. I ran into heads and fins while eating it. Not sure how he made it, but it was great. I even sucked the fins with him.

[swellcat]

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The OP may take pride that this thread is one of the top search returns for "catfish head soup".

For folks who make and/or use stocks (and you probably should for the tastiest soups and stews) getting flavour from bones and scraps, this doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

Using as much of the animal as possible appeals to me. Gills, skin, and bones, eventually, go in a bucket with water to brew up fish emulsion to feed the chiles, tomatoes, and thyme which in turn can go in these dishes.



This looks quite good, too: Cajun Catfish Courtbouillon



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[Pogo]

Catfish Courtboullion ... it doesn't get much better! Here's the famous old recipe from Paw Paw's Seafood in Lake Charles, which is but a memory now:

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 27&t=80485" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

swellcat is right on, we modern Americans throw out an awful lot of mighty good cooking stuff, it's really pretty appalling.

[swellcat]

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It's easy to get culture-bound on our culinary practices . . . you know, just do what we think we know. Fortunately, using threads like this, it's pretty easy to get unbound, too.

For lunch, I've done a version of the head stew using tomatoes, homegrown thyme (freeze-tolerant plant, which is mighty handy), wine (sauvignon blanc), chives, cilantro, juniper berries (from our Eastern redcedar trees), and a fresh Jamaican hot chocolate chile (which will be too hot for some folk, even with just one pod in the pot). I used some roe and liver in the mix, too.

Next time (and I saved another head from a 23" blue cat), I'll start with a roux (rather than just adding corn starch) for more flavour but also make the stock separately rather than in the pot. In-the-pot is rustic and fun and OK with me, but simmering the stock separately gives the cook a chance to strain out fins and bones which does make the eating easier, especially for the skittish.


Catfish Armageddon Chowder, Head-and-Tail
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[Stoic_J]

My mother used to make fishhead soup. Yes, it looks kinda weird, but it tastes good and I was grateful to have it.

[cliftonio]

I had fish head soup in Korea many times......the eyeball is like finding the baby in the king cake!

[Duby]

Sorry for such a late post just saw this recipes and it sounds good.

one question ----- "simmer for 30 minutes"

is that with the lid on or off?