Blackened Catfish with Tabasco Buerre Blanc

July 25, 2010 Categories Food, New Orleans, Recipe 2 Comments Tags blackened catfish, buerre blanc, catfish, cooking up a storm, jacques imos, paul prudhomme, tabasco, tabasco buerre blanc, times picayune

The inspiration for this dish came from a meal I had at Jacques Imo’s in New Orleans. They serve a blackened redfish with a chili crab hollandaise that is one of my favorite items on the menu. (for more about Jacques Imo’s, see my review here)

I made several adaptations to the dish. First, redfish are not readily available on the West Coast at any time. Their habitat is the marshes of South Louisiana so due to the oil disaster, they are even harder to come by now. I substituted catfish which is also great blackened.

Then I changed the cooking method. Blackening is traditionally done indoors in a super heated cast iron skillet. It creates a heavy smoke spicy smoke that will set off smoke alarms and make breathing quite difficult. Instead I covered the outdoor gas grill with foil and heated it to high. I cooked the fish right on the foil.

The final change I made was making a Tabasco buerre blanc sauce in lieu of the chili hollandaise. I wanted a little bit of a lighter (if you can call a pound of butter lighter) tasting sauce.

This recipe was featured in the Foodbuzz July 24×24 benefit dinner I created, “New New Orleans Classics, Recreated“, for the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

Blackening Seasoning
Chef Paul Prudhomme is the creator of blackened redfish, so rather than buying a pre-made spice mix, I went straight to the source.

From: Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
• 2 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano leaves

Directions:
Combine all of the spices in a small bowl.

Tabasco Buerre Blanc
This makes a super spicy reduction and a spicy, but delicious butter sauce.

I adapted this recipe from a wonderful cookbook, Cooking Up a Storm which was edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker of the New Orleans Times Picayune. The editors compiled these recipes to help replace the recipes that residents lost during Hurricane Katrina. It is a treasure.

Yield: 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Tabasco sauce (Crystal would be great as well)
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 2 teaspoons shallots, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 cups (4 sticks) butter, cut into tablespoon slices

Directions:
Combine Tabasco, white wine, shallots and garlic in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until mixture is reduced by half.

Let mixture cool to warm and strain the reduction. Add the reduced liquid back to the pan.

Over very low heat, slowly whisk in the butter a few tablespoons at a time.

The key to a buerre blanc sauce is to keep the sauce at a warm temperature once you start adding the butter … not too hot, not too cold. You may need to take the saucepan off the heat periodically. You want the sauce just warm enough to melt the butter. If the sauce breaks you can fix it by processing it in a food processor or blender for a few seconds.

Blackened Catfish

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 recipe Blackening Seasoning
• 6 catfish fillets

Directions:
Cover the grill grates with aluminum foil. Heat the grill at its highest setting until it is super hot.

Pour the melted butter into a pie pan or loaf pan that will fit the fillets comfortably. Dredge the fillets through the butter. Generously sprinkle both sides of the buttered fish with the blackening seasoning and pat the seasoning into the fillet with your hand.

Place the fish on the prepared grill. Cover the grill and cook the fish for 5 minutes or so until just cooked through.

Serve the Blackened Catfish with Tabasco Buerre Blanc.