Fish catfish is readily used by culinary specialists to prepare real fish delicacies. Its meat is tender, soft, practically boneless and moderately fat. Its only drawback is the strong smell of tina, but even this does not prevent gourmets around the world from enjoying the delicate pulp of fish. And in our article you will learn what kind of fish catfish is and what recipes for its preparation exist.

Catfish - what kind of fish

Som is the largest river predator. Its length can reach five meters, and weight - more than 200 kg. In 2006, Thai fishermen caught a catfish weighing 395 kg! Many people think that catfish is an unpleasant scavenger fish, but in reality, this freshwater predator prefers hunting live fish, shellfish and other river inhabitants. Sometimes recorded cases of catfish attack on birds and pets.

The catfish has a long body with a large head, small eyes, with a wide, flat mouth and two large mustaches. There are no scales on the body of the predator, it is smooth and everything is covered with mucus. Catfish lives in silty places of a reservoir and does not leave its habitable place until the end of life.

70% of catfish meat consists of water, everything else is proteins and fats. The nutritionists were able to appreciate the beneficial properties of fish, as it has a high protein content. Catfish fats are also used for cosmetic and medical purposes.

Catfish is also widely used in cooking.

Its meat is soft and suitable for steamed dishes or in the oven, you can cook fish soup from it, make pickles and smoked.

Oven baked fish with potatoes

Any housewife can handle such a dish. The cooking process is simple, and the result is a very tasty and mouth-watering dish.

Ingredients:

  • catfish;
  • a pound of potatoes;
  • half an orange;
  • a spoonful of oil, fatty mayonnaise and spicy mustard;
  • salt, spices.

First of all, you need to eliminate the smell of mud, which is common to all river inhabitants. To this end, prepare a solution of salt and citric acid and hold the fish in it for 20 to 30 minutes.

Cooking method:

  1. Next, you need to remove the mucus from the carcass, simply rubbing the body with coarse salt, and then peeling it with the blunt side of the knife. After that, it remains only to remove all the insides, cut off the head, tail and fins. Prepared carcass should be cut into pieces and washed well.
  2. Pour the fish blanks with orange juice, salt, pepper and leave to marinate.
  3. Mix potato cubes with mayonnaise, oil and mustard sauce.
  4. We spread the potatoes in the marinade on the foil, distribute the fish steaks on top, wrap the products and cook in the oven for an hour at a temperature of 180 degrees. Foil can be removed 15 minutes before ready.

How to cook deliciously in a pan

If the hostess knows how to fry fish deliciously, then it will not be difficult for her to feed her family a delicious dinner. Today we will fry large fish, because catfish got into our nets.

Cooking method:

  1. For the dish we need catfish fillet, which we just cut in portions and sprinkle with salt and other spicy spices for fish. Leave the workpiece to marinate for half an hour.
  2. Then each piece is breaded in flour and overcooked in butter until a delicious crisp.

Batter recipe

The recipe for a simple frying with flour in oil is suitable for a modest family dinner, but if the arrival of guests is planned, then something special should be done for them. For example, cook fish catfish in batter.

Ingredients:

  • 500 g catfish fillet;
  • bulb;
  • egg;
  • three tablespoons of flour;
  • salt, spices, frying oil.

Cooking method:

  1. To make the catfish tender and even more delicious, it can be marinated using dry white wine or just the juice of one lemon. If such delights in our case are useless, then just sprinkle the fish portions with salt, any spices and remove for half an hour to soak.
  2. We make batter from an egg, flour, salt and onion, which must be ground on a grater to obtain gruel.
  3. We take pieces of fish, dip in batter and immediately put in hot oil. Fry until a beautiful crust is formed.

Tender catfish cutlets

Catfish meat is very juicy, tender and almost boneless, so you can cook delicious and moderately fat cutlets from it. You can serve them with any side dish and sour cream (mayonnaise) sauce.

Ingredients:

  • 600 g catfish fillet;
  • two white onions;
  • three pieces of loaf;
  • half a glass of milk;
  • half the head of garlic;
  • two potato tubers;
  • two eggs;
  • flour, spices.

Cooking method:

  1. Using a meat grinder, twist the fish fillet.
  2. In the minced fish we put bread soaked in milk, finely chopped garlic and onions. We also send potato grated here, and we drive in two eggs, pour in salt and aromatic seasonings.
  3. From the resulting mass we form cutlets, breading them in flour and fry in warm oil until cooked.

Fried fish with mushrooms

Juicy catfish meat can simply be fried in a pan - it will be very tasty. But if you also prepare mushroom sauce, you will get a truly festive and fragrant treat.

Ingredients:

  • 450 g fish fillet;
  • 45 g of dried mushrooms;
  • two tablespoons of vegetable and ghee;
  • half a glass of fish stock;
  • salt pepper.

Cooking method:

  1. We cut the fish fillet into steaks, salt, pepper and fry in oil until cooked.
  2. Dried mushrooms are pre-boiled, then cut into pieces and put in a pan with ghee. Fry for 10 minutes, then add spices, pour fish oil and simmer mushrooms for 15 minutes.
  3. We lay the fried catfish slices on a dish and pour in mushroom sauce.

Catfish baked in a sleeve

Tasty and sweet river fish catfish is suitable for cooking a variety of dishes. So, it can be baked in the oven with any vegetables and herbs.To make fish meat more juicy, it is better to bake catfish in a culinary sleeve.

Ingredients:

  • catfish;
  • two bow heads;
  • Bell pepper;
  • lemon;
  • salt, seasoning.

Cooking method:

  1. On the cleaned carcass of the fish, make cuts, rub with salt, pepper and pour over lemon juice. Close the cuts with slices of citrus.
  2. Soma will be baked on a vegetable pillow. To do this, mix the onion rings and slices of sweet pepper.
  3. We put vegetables in the sleeve, put fish on top and put the workpiece in the oven for 40 minutes at a temperature of 180 ° C.

With cheese and cream in the oven

Cooking a hearty and healthy fish dish is not as difficult as it sometimes seems. You just need to buy soft fish meat, for example, catfish, and bake it in the oven with a gentle creamy sauce.

Ingredients:

  • catfish;
  • three onions;
  • 280 ml of heavy cream;
  • salt, seasonings;
  • 180 g of cheese.

Cooking method:

  1. Pour the carcass of the catfish with lemon juice so that the smell of tina does not spoil the finished dish. Then we cut it into steaks and put it on a baking sheet with foil. Sprinkle the workpiece with salt, pepper and other spicy seasonings.
  2. We put onion rings on the fish pieces, pour them with cream and sprinkle all with cheese shavings.
  3. We cover the products with foil and put in the oven for 40 minutes, the temperature is 200 degrees. 15 minutes before ready, remove the foil.

No less tasty kebab is obtained from catfish. To do this, marinate the fish pieces overnight in a brine made of white wine, lemon juice and spices. Put pieces of fish on a skewer along with bell pepper and pickled onions. You will definitely like this barbecue! Anyway, any recipes for cooking catfish are surprisingly successful.