Curried Catfish with Apple-Corn Fritters

Recipe: Curried Catfish with Apple-Corn Fritters
Page: 212
Date Cooked: November 17, 2012

This recipe appeared to have a bit of a Southern flair to it. You have the catfish, apples, corn, and of course a fritter. This a definitely a complete recipe as well - there is a bit of a salad, an entree, and even a side. Accordingly, there are a lot of components to this recipe. I had to make one substitute, the recipe called for watercress but I used baby arugula instead.

Ingredients: Lemon, lime, apples, orange, corn, unsalted butter, Kosher salt, pepper, eggs, lager, all-purpose flour, arugula, corn oil, white wine, catfish fillets, milk, cornmeal, and curry powder

I peeled, cored, and diced the apples. I put the diced apples in a bowl and squeezed a little lemon and lime over the apples. I then juiced the orange, lemon, and lime into a small bowl and set it aside.

Right: Diced apples
Left: Bowl of citrus juices

I cut the kernels from the cob and sauteed the corn with some butter, salt, and pepper. I then let the corn cool for a bit.

Sauteed corn

I separated the eggs. I added beer to the egg yolks and whisked in some flour. I then added the corn and apples to the batter and set aside. I beat the egg whites till they formed soft peaks. I folded the egg whites into the batter and seasoned it all with salt and pepper.

Batter for the apple-corn fritters

I added a few tablespoons of the batter into hot oil for each fritter and let it cook until golden brown. I let the fritters drain on a paper towel and kept them warm in the oven.

Apple-corn fritters

I combined the wine with the citrus juices in a saucepan and let it reduce to half and turned off the heat.

Citrus-wine reduction

I put a cast-iron skillet on the stove to get hot. In the meantime, I seasoned the catfish with salt and pepper. I poured milk into a bowl. I also mixed cornmeal, curry, and flour into another bowl - seasoned with salt and pepper. I dipped the catfish in the milk, dredged each fillet in the curry-cornmeal mixture, and set it on a plate.

Seasoned catfish

I added butter to the cast-iron skillet and added the catfish fillets. The fillets fried until crispy and brown, just a few minutes on each side.

Fried catfish fillets

I reheated the citrus-wine reduction and whisked in some butter. I also seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Citrus-wine sauce

I was then ready to put it all together. I arranged the arugula on the plate and put a catfish fillet on the arugula. I spooned the citrus-wine sauce over the catfish and arranged the fritters around the plate.

Curried Catfish with Apple-Corn Fritters

Just based on the title of this recipe, I thought it was actually going to be a catfish curry. But coating the fish with the curry powder gave it a really beautiful color and was also quite simple. While making the fritters, I was a bit concerned. Before I added the egg whites, I couldn't really see how the batter was going to hold together. In actuality, they also were not difficult to make either.

So how did it taste.... It was good. The fish was cooked exactly right. The fritters were delicious. I loved the sweet and tart flavors of the apple. The first bite I took didn't have much of the citrus sauce and the dish felt flat. But when I did take a bite with the sauce it was really great. Overall, the dish was good and it looked beautiful on the plate.

Enjoy!