The Catch

Frying is usually banned at The County Line.

But there are exceptions to every rule, I suppose. After catching a mess of 14 catfish at the Ninnescah, it was a little hard to argue with the fisherman - especially when said fisherman was offering to clean all the fish and cook them.

I am all for sharing his top secret recipe. But it's a little hard to share something that he made up as he went along.

Since I didn't have any regular cornmeal in the pantry, he used a corn muffin mix as the base for his batter. If I get a vote, we'll use the muffin mix every time (Not that I'm planning on adding fried catfish to the menu frequently, but the muffin mix provided a little sweetness and was simply yummy!)

He added an egg and enough milk to make it the right consistency, along with a little salt and pepper.

He probably should have coated the fish in a little dry mix before dipping it in the batter (But I was just a humble observer who offered that opinion when he asked why the batter was sliding off a few of the fillets.)

He panfried the catfish in a little vegetable oil. And, since I had already relented on the food preparation method, why not fry a few leftover baked potatoes and have Fish 'n' Chips, right?

I did try to counteract the grease with an Oriental Cabbage Salad. We added some leftover baked beans, and we had quite a feast.

And we even had enough fillets to stash in the freezer for later. It remains to be seen whether the cooking method will be baked or fried. It probably depends on who's doing the cooking!


Here's the recipe for the Oriental Cabbage Salad. Not that it would have mattered for our grease-laden meal, but when I make this salad, I cut way back on the oil in the dressing. I also use a sugar substitute instead of the sugar.

I sometimes use this recipe as a main dish salad for me, adding cooked chicken breast (not fried, of course!)

Oriental Cabbage Salad

1/2 head cabbage, chopped or shredded (I use packaged coleslaw mix)
1 green pepper, chopped (or use yellow or red)
2 tbsp. chopped green onions
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 small package sliced or slivered almonds (1/2 cup or so)
2 pkgs. Ramen noodles, uncooked

Dressing
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup oil (I never use that much anymore)
1 to 2 flavor packets from noodles

Combine cabbage, green pepper and onions. Combine dressing ingredients. Combine the almonds, sunflower seeds and crushed-up Ramen noodles. Pour dressing over vegetable mixture just before serving. If you are serving a large crowd, you can put the Ramen noodle mixture in with the cabbage and toss. If you are just serving it to a few people at home, I recommend keeping the noodle mixture separate. Then you can just sprinkle some on top of each serving and have each person mix in their own. That way, you can use the leftover salad for another meal. (It's not nearly as appealing with soggy noodles!)