Chile Fried Catfish

MMMMM----------------------------FISH--------------------------------- 2 lb Fresh catfish filets; cut -into 1" X 2" chunks or -strips 1 lg Onion; coarsely chopped Couple handsful of fresh -green Tepins; Bolivians and -cayennes * * whole, with stems still on. (or other larger fresh green chiles in coarse chunks) I tried something interesting this week. Fried some fresh catfish as follows: Mix all dry ingredients above in a bowl. Cut up filets into chunks and pat extra water off with paper towels. Spritz with lemon juice. Roll in dry mix, one chunk at a time while filets are still damp. (If you throw em all in together they make a gluey mess.) Heat cooking oil over the grill outside (keeps odors out of the house) in a deep dutch oven W/ lid available. Oil should be 2" deep and hot enough to bubble a fish chunk when dropped in. Add fish to hot oil, dont crowd them too much. When the first fish chunk floats up, add a few chiles and onion chunks. Put the lid on. Remove all when fish is golden brown and mostly floating (mine took about 5 minutes, check fish for texture if unsure). Divvy up onions & chiles so each batch of fish gets some. Drain on paper towels. Consume fish with chiles (salted a little) and onions. We had a group of non-CH teenagers at the house while I was doing this--they had already eaten supper-- and the fish was disappearing as fast as it cooled enough to eat. The chiles and onions were also excellent, and imparted a subtle flavoring to the fish. Keeping the grease hot helps keep the dry mix on and the fish is not greasy-tasteing. Highly recommended. Posted to CHILE-HEADS DIGEST by Calvin Donaghey <gdonaghey@bitstreet.com> on Jun 19, 1999, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.