Fried Catfish & Hush Puppies with Spicy Mayo Tartar Sauce
Fish fry is a staple of the Midwest. I'll show you how to do it right with fried catfish and super easy hushpuppies plus a versatile spicy mayo tartar sauce for dipping.
Ingredients
FREID CATFISH:
- 1 kg thawed american catfish filets, use fresh catfish if you can find it. I couldn't find it in my area so I used thawed. Sub tilapia if you can't find catfish 2 lbs
- 100 g ap flour
- 15 g kosher salt
- 5 g black pepper
- 10 g garlic powder
- 10 g onion powder
- 5 g paprika
- 2 g cayenne
- 100 g medium grind corn meal
- 100 g finely ground corn meal, blitz medium grind in blender/food processor
- 500 g buttermilk, or sour cream and milk
- 30 g hot sauce
HUSHPUPPIES:
- 65 g ap flour
- 150 g medium-fine grind cornmeal
- 8 g kosher salt
- 10 g baking powder
- 10 g sugar
- 2 g cayenne
- 75 g onions, small diced
- 25 g unsalted butter, melted
- 1 egg
- 200 g buttermilk, or milk and sour cream
SPICY MAYO TARTAR SAUCE:
- 100 g mayonnaise
- 75 g ketchup
- 30 g hot sauce
- 20 g yellow mustard
- 25 g lemon juice
- 15 g worcestershire
- 25 g shallot
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 g paprika
- 3 g black pepper
- 3 g kosher salt
Instructions
- Prepare frying pot by adding 2-3qt/L (depending on size of pot) of neutral oil to a large heavy bottom pot and heat over medium high until it reaches a temp of 350°F/175°C. Be sure your pot is not filled more than halfway up the sides with oil.
FRIED CATFISH:
- Cut filets on a bias so that you have pieces that are roughly the same weight. Set on a wire rack and salt both sides of fillets. Allow to cure for 20 minutes
- In a bowl, stir together flour, 15g salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne, and corn meal.
- In a separate bowl, stir together buttermilk and hot sauce.
- To bread the fish, drop each fillet into the buttermilk mix to coat. Drain off well then drop fillet into dry mixture and coat well. Toss back and forth in your hands to remove excess batter.
- Carefully lower filets away from your body into preheated 350°F/175°C oil, frying 2 at a time, for about 4-5 minutes flipping filets over halfway through. Fish is done with it's crispy and golden brown.
- Transfer to wire rack or towels to drain why you fry the rest.
HUSHPUPPIES:
- For the batter, whisk together 65g ap flour, med-fine grind corn meal, salt, baking powder, sugar, cayenne, onions, melted butter, egg, and buttermilk.
- Carefully drop large spoonfuls of batter (working in 2 batches) into hot oil and fry for about 2½ minutes, flipping over halfway through. Puppies are done when they're crispy and dark golden brown.
- Remove from oil and drain on wire rack.
SPICY MAYO TARTAR SAUCE:
- Spin ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
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