Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish...YUM!

Someday my food pictures will not be so ugly!

I made this for my family for Good Friday dinner.  My husband likes fish, but he doesn't like the smell it can leave in a house (especially when fried), but I'd been good this Lent and didn't inundate my family with fish every Friday and since catfish is my favorite fish, the hubby let me make this.

What can I say except this is now my favorite!  And at 195 calories per serving that fits nicely in my diet!  I got this recipe from a book purchase at my son's Scholastic Book Fair.  Like several other recipe books I got with good intentions this one sat unused.  Then I decided that I was tired of the weight I'd gained since leaving the military and joined some friends in an app to lose weight (I promise this post is coming in the future).  It was now time to bust out the recipe books.  I'm fairly good at making recipes lighter than what they are, but how could I ignore "Cooking Light Comfort Food"?  There are several recipes that look really good and I will be making soon, but today I'm talking about catfish for under 200 calories a serving!

Now the nutritional information beneath the recipe in the book has this catfish coming in at 277 calories.  Perhaps they used slightly different ingredients than I did.  I scanned the bar codes for the food I was using into my Lose It! app and it gave me the nutritional information for what I made (don't ya just love technology!?!).  The ingredients you use could make yours slightly different as well, but 195 or 277 is still much better than most main courses!

Now for the recipe!

Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish

2 tbsp bacon fat
1/3 c. yellow cornmeal
2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
4 (6-oz) catfish fillets

Combine the cornmeal, Cajun seasoning and salt in a bowl.  Dredge each catfish fillet in the cornmeal mixture (it doesn't look like much, but it should cover all 4 fish fillets).

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and drop 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat in the pan.  Cook the catfish for 5 minutes and turn.  Drop the other tablespoon of bacon fat into the pan and when melted shake the pan slightly so that it gets under all the fillets.  Cook another 5 minutes or until the fish flakes when tested.

I used Chef Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic

Now in the cookbook they tell you to cook 3 strips of bacon and use the fat, reserving the bacon for another use.  The amount of fat they use is also 2 tsp not tablespoons, but the teaspoon of fat didn't go very far and I wanted that flavor in the fish.  I have a container that I keep bacon fat in each time I make bacon and store it in the refrigerator.  How long can you keep bacon fat in the fridge without spoiling?  No idea, but mine doesn't sit long.  Bacon is a spice after all....at least in my house.  Perhaps that's why I'm on a diet!

Seriously though each tablespoon of bacon fat has about 116 calories in it so 2 tablespoons is 231, but that's split over all 4 fillets.  So overall not a bad amount of calories and you get the great taste too.  You can certainly substitute olive oil although I would imagine that you would lose some of the great flavor this recipe has.  Keep in mind that olive oil has quite a lot of calories per tablespoon as well so there really is no point in switching unless you need to be concerned with good fat vs. bad fat in your diet.

I doubled this recipe for dinner.  My youngest loves fish, but he always seems to forget that. Whenever I say that I'm making fish for dinner, he pulls a face.  Then he sits down for dinner and gobbles up more than daddy does!  Because of this I never know how much to make.  I had some leftovers and was cringing because in my experience fish rarely reheats well.  This DID!

I have a toaster/convection oven with a "reheat" setting.  I popped a fillet in there at 425 degrees for 8 minutes (with the convection button set as well) and the fish was perfect.  Perhaps not as crispy as on the first night, but it wasn't soggy.  You can bet that I'll be making this up and refrigerating it for use throughout the week for low-calorie lunches.

Oh, and that fish smell my hubby hates?  No complaints there.  Not sure why that is, but I'll take it!