Summer Cooking- the Reflection, part 2

During the summer, a large part of learning about cooking was taking advice from more experienced members of my family about how they like to prepare, season, and cook their personal recipes. From family on my mom's side, I learned the fine art of frying as much catfish as possible in as short of an amount of time as one can, starting with the process of breading the fish.

My personal favorite, and coincidentally the one we used to make our catfish, is the crispy fish fry mix here, which uses cornmeal and a variety of spices to leave an amazing aftertaste and a healthy amount of crunchiness with the fish.

When actually cooking catfish, the most important thing is even distribution of fish in the oil. Once the oil hits the perfect temperature, you need to get as much fish in the oil as possible, without allowing too much of the breading to fall in, but also making sure you place it in fast enough that everything has enough time to cook completely through and the breading comes out nice and crunchy.

Done correctly, the catfish comes out a light golden color and remains crispy, and from there all one needs to do is place it into a pan with a few paper towels lining the bottom of the pan to collect any excess oil that drips off.