OK, although I’m posting this you have to realize that it is pretty much highway robbery.  Every item in this meal comes directly from Kathy’s paternal grandparents, Jewel and Lester Reeves, channeled through Kathy.  I don’t think that I ever had catfish until we started dating, but it didn’t take too many of these meals to force me to set aside my saltwater fish snobbery and admit that it was whoooo-weeee, slap yo mama good!  Yeah, that might have been a bit over the top, but you get the idea.  There are some asterisks that must be applied though.  First, if you make this meal with farm raised catfish the food FBI will hunt you down and make sure that you pay for your crime.  Second, only my world class tartar sauce will bring this meal to its proper zenith and the recipe for that (and Kathy’s cornbread) will not be provided here.  We do have a price though so send sealed bids and we’ll see what we can work out.  The catfish presented here were the fortunate byproduct of being confronted with the prospect of an afternoon of festival shopping in beautiful downtown Huntsville, Tx.  Instead I opted for an afternoon of drowning worms in Elkins Lake directly behind Aunt Chris’s house.  Having never fished there I wasn’t overly optimistic but I figured that I could snag enough sunfish to make it worthwhile and considering the alternative it seemed like a great idea.  The sunfish did cooperate but they were significantly overshadowed by some hungry and fairly sizeable channel cats and what seemed like a time killer turned into a number of dinners reminiscent of fine dining back in Baylor County.

Baylor County Catfish

Enough catfish chunks to feed more folks than you have, you’ll need them

Enough seasoned 50/50 yellow cornmeal and flour mixture to coat twice, whatever seasoning blows your skirt up will work.  I used cayenne, garlic salt, thyme and black pepper here

Enough beaten egg/milk mixture to coat once, a splash of milk per egg will do

Enough 350 degree corn oil to cover in a deep skillet

Rinse and dry the fish

Dredge fish chunks in seasoned cornmeal flour mixture, shake off excess

Coat chunks with egg/milk

Redredge chunks in cornmeal flour mixture, set aside for a few minutes to set breading

Drop chunks in the hot oil.  Do not add so many that your oil temp drops below 325

Fry until you hit Alton Brown’s GBD

Drain on paper towels

Eat with your elbows on the table!