I occasionally bake a pie or two for my church's annual fund-raiser dinner.

When this cajun goes to the fishing camp you can bet something is going into a black cast iron pot. Here's a recipe for fried fish which includes a bit of technique. If you try these please, let me know how they turned out for you. Dan Perfect Cajun Fried Fish Recipe By : Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 2 cups yellow cornmeal 1 cup corn flour (aka unseasoned fish fry) 1/2 cup cornstarch 2 teaspoons onion powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder 3 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 pound catfish fillet (smaller size) Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl until they are thoroughly blended. Then taste the mixture and readjust the seasonings according to your taste. You should be able to taste a hint of each seasoning. Now take the fillets, just wet them with water, not dipped in egg wash, and roll them thoroughly in the coating mix. Do not fry them fry them right away. Let them rest for 3 to 4 minutes so that the coating adheres to the fish. If you fry too soon, the cornstarch won't have the necessary time to bind the mixture and the coating will fall off in the pan as you fry. Also, the cornstarch needs to pick up a bit of water so upon frying it adds a crispy texture to the coating. When ready to fry, pour 2 cups of high quality vegetable oil or peanut oil into a pre-heated skillet (cast iron is best). Then bring the oil temperature up to 350 degrees (for best results use a thermometer). Then drop in the fish, frying them 2 minutes on the flat side (back bone side) and 1 minute on the round side (skin side). Turn again back on the other side and fry another 1 minute. Your fish should be crunchy and crispy in 4 minutes when fried as I've directed above. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Eric, They're Codfish. Bit on the larger side. I like to fis out in Massachusetts Bay. I keep my boat in Provincetown now due to the high fuel costs. Provincetown is a goldmoine of photo opertunity. Hope to shoot some night photo's of the tower there this season. I fell in love with my little Canon G-3. How did we ever get along without digital?

I generally use cast iron. Gotta be deep enough to hold a decent amount of oil, and the thermal retention properties of cast iron keeps the temp of the oil from dipping too quickly when you add the fish. (But don't fill the pan up at once with fish; add the fish a few at a time so the temperature doesn't plummet. If the temperature goes down too much, the crust won't 'set' and it will instead become a sponge for all the oil. Yuck.) And as an added bonus, deep frying stuff is a great way to season (or enhance the seasoning on) cast iron. Another very good way to fry fish is to use an electric frypan, if it's deep enough. These have a thermostat that makes keeping the right temperature a snap. Just thinking: you don't see those electric skillets as much as you used to. In the sixties, everybody seemed to have one on the counter.