My husband is in NOLA right now on a business trip, and talking about yummy cajun food reminded me of my trip to Mississippi for work a couple of years ago.  My trip into MS was an interesting experience.  We were in a rural area near the river, and it was really hard to see all of the abject poverty around us in the area we were staying in while we were sampling.  But it was a good experience I think, we got to meet some great people, experience a different culture and man was the food rockin’ the entire time and the local blues music was fantastic.  Ok so I know you are all wondering…what in the world did we sample for in MS?

Why catfish ponds of course!!

Catfish I think is MS’s largest industry – if not the largest, one of the largest, and MS raises more catfish than any other state.  If you are not a fishy eater, farm raised catfish might just be the fish for you.  Unlike wild catfish, farm raised catfish are NOT bottom feeders.  They are trained to eat feed from the surface of the water, which means that they are a lighter and more delicate fish than their murky wild counterparts.  Rated “Eco-Best” by the Environmental Defense Fund, farming catfish do not appear to cause ecological damage and are fairly low in contaminant levels.

One of my favorite meals that I ate in MS was “blackened catfish with crawfish étouffée”.  Like I said, the food, even in rural MS, just rocked.  So tonight is my attempt at recreating the dish.  I used this recipe from Louisianna Cookin‘ as a base to start from, but was absolutely horrified at the amount of butter involved.  I attempted to create a dish that was not quite so artery clogging.  Also, the étouffée recipe makes at least 4 servings, so you can cut it in half (I listed a half recipe here), or just have lots of étouffée leftovers to eat over rice!

Ingredients (for 2 servings)-
1/2 cup dry brown rice
2 catfish filets, about 4 oz. each
2 tbs. veg. oil per filet
Herb rub for catfish – I used: paprika, basil, marjoram, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, and some minced garlic
1/2 lb. crawfish, though if you live in the midwest like me and crawfish are unavailable, use shrimp
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 celery rib, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. flour (doesn’t matter what kind, GF flours are friendly to this type of use)
1 tbs. tomato paste
1 tbs. red pepper flakes
1/2 cup water
salt, pepper

Directions –
1. Start the rice enough ahead of time so it that you have about 10 min left when you start the rest of the dish.  That way it will be ready all at once.
2.  I used a small 8″ stainless skillet for the catfish, this worked well.  I spread the veg. oil on the fish, mixed up the herb rub together, and then rubbed it into the catfish, and set it in the skillet on just above med. to cook like the recipe stated.  I’m not sure that my catfish necessarily came out “blackened”, but it sure came out flavorful and yummy and fall off of the fork tender!
3. For the étouffée, pretty much just follow the directions in the recipe, but you can totally cut the butter in half like I listed in the ingredients here.  I found adding the red pepper flakes really added to the dish too, so play with some kick depending on your tolerance
4. Serve rice on the bottom of the dish, then top with catfish and then the étouffée. Eat!