Cooking a Fresh Fry

Hi there, I'm Paula Deen and down south there is nothing we love more than a good old fashioned fish fry

So today I'm going to grab my fishing pole and take you straight to the source

I hope they're biting today because we're going to need to fry some nice fresh catfish to a gorgeous golden brown

But before that I'm going to stir up some garlicky grits with a creamy cheesy texture

I'll give you the secret to my heavenly hush puppies. And finally, a light Georgia cracker salad that's just delicious

So y'all jump in your waiters and get ready for tasty times

because we got fish to fry. Today's show is all about fish and fish fries

My home is just surrounded by water, and we thrive on the water and everything that lives in it

And one of my favorite things in the whole world to do is to go catfishing

And that's what I'm going to cook for y'all today. I'm going to do catfish fillets

But before we start today's meal, we have to go get our catfish

You see, the best fish is the freshest, and the freshest is the fish that you catch yourself

So I always jump at the chance to get my hands on a rod, and I know just the place, Tybee Island

It's a small island located just outside Savannah where the sea breezes blow

and the catfishing is good. My friend Daryl is planning to meet me

by the perfect little freshwater pond where we always catch some fish together

Hi, Daryl. Hi, Paula. Thanks for coming out. Oh, I can't hardly wait

You haven't started without me, have you? I didn't. Good. What are you doing

I'm just putting a cork on here. Okay. You got me a straight line? I do. It's all baited up and ready to go

Good. They going to be biting today? We can only hope. Daryl, back here is so very special

because it really doesn't look like Tybee Island, does it? No, it's a little bit different because we're on a peninsula

We're surrounded by water on all sides, and it's a little bit different. Even though we're at the beach, it's the back part of the island, which is real special

You have a lot of different foliage and just a lot of things you won't find right on the beach

Is this the only freshwater pond on Tybee? There's one other on the other side of this one down the way a bit

and then there's a couple of small man-made ones, but these are the biggest ones on the island

There is nothing as good as a pond catfish, though, is it? Uh-uh

All right, come on, baby. Come to mama. Come here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty

Oh, God, Darrell, I think I've got one. Hold on to it now. Come on. Oh, my gosh, he's fighting

It's a huge one. That's what we're talking about. Just play him

Don't let him break the line. He's fighting me. I know he is. But you got him

Okay, here we go. You want me to get him? No, I got him

Okay, well, I'm not going to let you fall. Okay. There you go. Look at him

There you go. See how big his mouth is? Yes. Oh, gosh, my heart's just pounding

He's smiling at you, Paul. Oh, my God, I'd rather do this than eat when I'm hungry

All right. Isn't he gorgeous? Catfishing is my favorite because they'll fight

They're like mudfish. This is a pretty good-sized one, too. Yeah. They'll also fin you pretty good, too, so you've got to be careful with them

How are you going to cook this? He's big enough I'll fillet him. I can smell that bad boy frying right now

He's a beauty. Darrell, I had such a good time today. I appreciate it so much, but I think I'm going to take my fish

and go into the kitchen now, okay? Kind of worked up an appetite there, huh? There ain't nothing better than catfishing

I forgot to mention that Daryl's as good at picking as he is at fishing

and when the fish ain't biting, he just charms them with his talent

Thanks, Daryl. See you later. I had a ball. We've gotten our fish

Now, the most wonderful side dish with fish is grits. Southerners would never dream of eating a fish without grits

So that's what we're going to start with. Remember, fish only takes a second to fry

This has to bake for about 35 minutes, has to cook for 10 or 15 minutes on top of the stove

So we going to start with our grits dish Now in this pot I got milk and water and I going to add about a teaspoon of salt I want to tell you a couple of things about cooking grits First

I never ever ever touch an instant grit. That's against the law. I don't use the long cooking

I use the quick cook grits that says they cook in five minutes, but that's not true

No grit can cook in five minutes. So we take a quick cook grit and we actually cook it for 30, 45 minutes or an hour

And the most important step in cooking grits is stirring it from the very start until each

one of those grains are individually wet and moist. But now we've got these going really, really good

So we're gonna put the lid on them and let those cook for a few minutes

I'm gonna turn them down low. You wanna cook your grits on a fairly low temperature

And you know what I think I'm gonna do? Just to make sure they don't lump up

I think I'm gonna go ahead and add the butter to the pot. And I'm gonna take a stick of real butter

Is there any other kind of butter besides real butter? I'm gonna add a little bit more salt to them

So we're gonna let those cook for a few minutes, and we're gonna grate a little cheese to go on top

We're gonna put plenty of cheese in the middle of them, But we're going to get up some cheddar to spread on top at the last minute of cooking

You know, there's no such thing as too much butter or too much cheese

There we go. All right, let's look at our pot one more time and see if they're getting close

And they are. Look how they've already thickened up. They're going to be out of this world

All right, our grits are ready. I've cut the heat off and put the lid on so they won't dry out

and I'm going to quickly saute some green onions in about a tablespoon of butter

And we don't have to saute these but just a second. In fact, if you wanted to omit this step, you could

You could just throw them into your grits because they're going to have about 35 minutes in the oven

so they'll be very soft anyway. But what the heck, it gives me a chance to use a little bit more butter

Sounds like a good excuse to me. How about y'all? I'll just have to share this story with you

One night I was home, and I said, you know, I just want something a little different

from the normal grits casserole that's been around forever. So I went through my cabinets

and I started searching for just anything that would give me a little different look

Well, I ran up on a can of Rotel tomatoes, and they're a hot, crushed tomato

and they're just wonderful. Down south we make what we call a Rotel dip

with a processed cheese and a can of these little tomatoes, and they're hot and spicy and got a nice kick to them

So I said, I'm going to try that in the grits and see what happens. Well, when I got through, I had the most wonderful

grit casserole I had ever put in my mouth. So you can see they're already losing their grit look, kind of

Normally, I would put a garlic cheese. You can find it using your grocery stores in the dairy section

and it's cheese that has been seasoned with garlic. Well, I didn't have that today, so I'm just going to make a substitute

and I've used a processed cheese, and I'm going to use about a fourth of a teaspoon of garlic

which will give us the same flavor, and we're going to stir that cheese up in there until it starts melting

See how yummy that's looking? Oh, I can smell the tomatoes in there now getting in there

It's going to be delicious. Our first cheese is starting to melt

and now I'm going to go ahead and add my cheddar. Doesn't look like grits, does it

All right, all we're going to do is pour these into our casserole dish

and we're just going to put these in the oven and bake them for about 35 minutes

and then right before we take them out and are ready to serve, we're going to put some extra cheese on them

And aren't they beautiful? Now I've got one in the other oven that I started earlier

So let's see if that one's ready. Oh, and it is. I'm going to let this one cool just a few minutes before I can test it

And when we come back, I'm going to be frying up catfish and calling the puppies to the house

We're back, and I'm fixing to fry up the catfish

and I'm going to start with a self-rising flour, and I'm going to use about four parts of self-rising flour

to about one part of cornmeal. A lot of people use straight meal on their fish

but I don't like it. I like a more floured base So I just going to mix that up As you can see I had really good luck I got some nice fat cats And we going to just salt them And I love to put a little old bay And you

don't want to be shy in salting your fish because that really is another one of those

foods that if you don't give it enough salt before cooking, it might be hard to get it

salty enough after you've gone through the cooking process with it. And never be afraid

to rub your meat. I love rubbing and touching my meat and getting those seasonings in all

the cracks and crevices. And I'll show you a little trick if you don't have a thermometer

I'll show you a quick little trick that will let you know if your grease is hot enough

I'm going to come over here and I'm going to dip my fingers in a little bit of water

and just put a splash in there. That lets me know that that grease is ready. When I'm

cooking inside, I always use a black cast iron Dutch oven because it gives me the depth

that I need. If your piece of fish is too big for your pot, you can always take a knife

and just cut it right in two. But these are going to fit nicely down in there. And you

can see our grease was just perfect. And while our catfish are cooking, I'm going to move

over here and I'm going to start mixing up those delicious little hush puppies. We're

going to start with self-rising cornmeal and self-rising flour. And as you know, if you're

using a self-rising cornmeal or a self-rising flour, they already have the leavenings in

them and they also have salt. But I'm still going to put a little extra salt in these

just because you want your hush puppies to have a little salty taste to them. And I'm

going to add a half a teaspoon of baking soda. We're just going to stir that up and I'm going

to put one small chopped onion, and a hush puppy is not a hush puppy without the onions

And we're going to add one egg, and then our milk. Actually, this is buttermilk. That's

why we're using the soda. And I'll tell you why these are called hush puppies. All fish

fries are usually done outside, and naturally, all the dogs are going to gather around all

the good smelling food and they are looking for something to eat and the cooks would throw

the little fried bread to the dogs and say hush puppy hush and so they became known as hush puppies

and you see how i'm having to take my fingers and scrape the batter off the spoon well i'm going to

show you a little trick when we're frying them that your hands will never have to touch your

batter. And let's come over here and see how our fish is doing. Oh, it's looking beautiful

And I'm just going to flip those fillets. And remember we don't want to overcook this

We just want the fish to get past the transparent state. And while our fish is frying, I'm going

to go ahead and drop some hush puppies into the grease. And this is the little trick I

want to show you. All you have to do is drop your spoon into a glass of tap water and you

Just scoop your hush puppy into that and the water allows that hush puppy to fall right off

There's no doing with your other finger. And you see it's popped up to the top and we're going to put just a few in there

And then as soon as they start browning, we're going to just flip them

And if you wait too long to flip your hush puppies, they'll get bottom heavy with the

grease and they won't want to flip on you. So you kind of want to start flipping them pretty soon until they're nice and brown and

done. You can just take your cooking utensil and just kind of give them a little nudge

and they'll turn right on over. These are looking grand. Since I've got a little bit

more room over here, I'm going to drop a few more. Now if I was cooking this outside, if

I was cooking for 20 or 25 people, I would have my pan just full of my fish. And then

the hush puppy would be the last thing that I would fry. Let's see if we can take another

peek at our fish and it's just about perfect. When you know they're almost done, you can

see a little clear liquid coming out of them in the creases and we'll know that we're almost

there. And I think our catfish is ready. Yes, so you can see the juices just clearing out

of the fat part of the fish. We're just going to drain him good. Then we're going to put

them on the paper towels to catch any of the excess grease

And we're going to take our hush puppies out. Looks pretty tasty, doesn't it

And I'm going to run out here, outside. I can't resist using the fresh herbs

And look how easy our catfish and hush puppies were. To complete our meal, we're having Georgia Cracker Salad

That the very very last step that I do in preparing my meal because it made from saltine crackers Who ever heard of a salad made out of crackers Stay tuned because it wonderful You do it in about three minutes and it just out

of this world. All right, I promised y'all cracker salad

and that's what we're fixing to make next. How many times have you gone to bed and realized

well, you were hungry and just wanted a little something to eat, and I'm bad about going to the kitchen

and just getting out a soda cracker and smearing it with a little mayonnaise, and that'll fill up that hunger, and then I'll go on to bed

So this cracker salad is kind of the same thing as that mayonnaise smeared on the cracker

All you do is take your saltines and crush them, and you can do it just with your hand, just like this

because they crush very easily. And then we're going to put a chopped tomato

We're going to put a hard-boiled egg. Make sure all the shell's off of him

And I'm just going to take him and squeeze him in my hand like that

so he'll be in coarse big pieces. And we're going to put some green onion in there

And this will give it some nice color and onion flavor at the same time

And we're going to just moisten this with mayonnaise. And you can start with just a little

because remember, you can always add two, but you can't take out once you got it in there

It's too late. When I serve Georgia cracker salad, I mix this up right before I call my guest to the table

because I love the crunchiness that the crackers give you because after it sits, it'll get soggy

Some people just love it that way, but my personal preference is the crispiness of the crackers

So I've added a little bit more mayonnaise, and I'm going to put in a little fresh ground pepper

and I'm going to add just a little salt, not much, because remember, you're salting crackers

Have salt. And if you like a creamier texture, by all means, add some more mayonnaise

because this is strictly a personal preference. And just in a matter of a couple of minutes

we have Georgia cracker salad. What a fun little dish. Crunchy and delicious

We're ready to plate this up now, and I'll show you how I do it at the restaurant. It just gives it a little finished look

I'm going to put just a little lettuce on a plate. And I have found what works very well for a cracker salad

It's just an old ice cream scoop. We're just going to scoop it

All this needs is a little sprig of parsley. And it's ready to serve

Now, y'all hang around because I'm fixing to set up our beautiful table with all of our fried fish and hush puppies

And I'm going to give you some tips on storing your grease for your next fish fry

So come back. For a nice garnish for your fish, you can take fresh parsley

And today I've used Italian parsley. I just love it. It's got the big leaves on it

You can drop it into your hot grease for about two seconds, take it out and drain it on paper, and it just looks so pretty on your fish

Real different kind of garnish. And on storing your grease, peanut oil, which is what I recommend for frying, can get rather on the pricey side

So you'll want to save it. You'll want to clean it and store it. Now, one way to clean it is drop French fries in it at the end of your cooking time

and it'll take out all the meal that's floating around in your grease will stick to your potatoes

and it cleans it up just like that. And you can store it probably for about a month

Before you ever use your used grease, you'll want a smell of it

And if it has a rancid smell, throw it out. It's too old. But it'll really stay with you for a while

And I always like cooking my fish in old grease or grease that's been used at least one time

So take care of your grease so it'll last you a little bit longer

And then store it in a cool dry place until the next fish fry

I'm ready to whistle everybody to the table and I've got my catfish fillets

I've got my hush puppies, and always, always you want to have some fresh lemon around for people who like a little lemon flavor on their fish

And I've got my Georgia cracker salad. And finally we've got our tomato grits casserole

And until next time, best dishes from my kitchen to yours. Yum