Fried Fish Heaven

I can't hardly write a word without wanting to fly from our hometown (Denver, Colorado) to Ocala, Florida (my wife Danielle's mom and dad have a horse ranch there, and this is where she caught this 11lb Florida Large-Mouth on the Silver River)

I grew up in a rural area outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma where bass fishing ponds are plentiful, and eating a big mess of fresh fish is very commonplace. To me there is nothing better than catching a big mess of blue gill perch, crappie, or large mouth bass and taking them home to mom to fry up (after I finish cleaning them of course). That's me holding an 8.5lb Florida Large-Mouth, caught on the same trip where Danielle caught her 11lb trophy, this was the trip of a lifetime!

So now we've got the fish! It's time to get out that cast iron fish fryer (like the one in the picture at the top of this post), and get to cooking!

There are many great recipes for fried fish, but this one, though very simple in my opinion is the absolute best:

Ingredients

Buttermilk
Flour
Corn meal
Vegetable Oil
Salt and Pepper

Directions

Clean the fish - fillets are best, but this recipe will work well even for perch, and crappie that may not be big enough for filleting (be careful for bones though!). Soak the cleaned fish in a bowl of buttermilk in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours (be sure the buttermilk totally covers the fish), be sure to salt the fish on both sides before soaking.

Now add your vegetable oil (you should fill the skillet with enough oil to cover the amount of fish you are going to fry, usually 1" of oil is plenty. Now heat your cast iron skillet at medium temperature (size of skillet will vary based on how many fish you are going to fry), for a normal fish fry a 10" cast iron skillet should do the trick. I should also note that this process works especially well with one of the many fish deep fryers we have available on our site at http://www.castironcollection.com.

You will now want to have a plate filled with a mixture of cornmeal and flour right next to the stove. Now take the fish out of the buttermilk one piece at a time and coat it with your corn meal/flour mix and then lay the fish into the skillet. (be careful not to burn your hands, and use metal tongs if necessary), after the skillet is full of fish add salt and pepper, then take your tongs and turn the fish in the oil until fried to a golden brown.

Be sure to fry up some southern fried potatoes, some deep fried okra, & bake some of that awesome corn bread! Slice up some home grown tomatoes, and you have got a feast fit for a king.

It's good to be the king!

Yum Yum !!! Enjoy! -

If you need to learn how to clean fish, please contact an experienced fisherman, or fisher-woman. The cleaning process is too dangerous in my opinion to teach with out a hands on demonstration.