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Full Episode Fridays: Home is Where the Heart is Pt. 2 - 4 Recipes for a Fried Fish Dinner
May 31, 2024
4 Recipes for a Fried Fish Dinner - Paula is making Southern comfort food recipes, including a Southern catfish recipe, a hush puppies recipe, and more seafood dinner recipes. Positively Paula, Season 1, Episode 10.
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00:00 Intro
5:25 Cole Slaw Recipe: https://www.positivelypaula.tv/s1ep10
6:50 Plain Grits Recipe: https://www.positivelypaula.tv/s1ep10
7:33 Fried Catfish Fillets Recipe: https://www.positivelypaula.tv/s1ep10
10:30 Hushpuppies Recipe: https://www.positivelypaula.tv/s1ep10
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For more episodes of Positively Paula, click here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2LHabI5sYyFW4fceMhkzsIfer9SGChS6
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:01
[upbeat music]
0:04
♪
0:05
♪
0:20
- Hey, friends, I hope y'all are all doing well today.
0:23
I'm real excited because what I've got in my mind
0:26
is to take y'all on a trip down memory lane,
0:30
and of course, you know what that means,
0:32
a trip to River Bend.
0:34
I don't think I've ever taken y'all there.
0:36
♪
0:45
You know, there was one thing
0:47
that I really wanted to do with Michael,
0:51
and I wanted to take him to a place that would--
0:54
was so special to me as a child.
0:58
It's where I spent the first ten years of my life,
1:02
and it's really where it all started,
1:06
and that was River Bend.
1:09
Look at the pecan trees. Great time of day.
1:13
The finest pecans in the world come out of this county.
1:18
So Michael, we're on US 19 right now,
1:22
and it was called--
1:27
what was it called? I can't remember.
1:29
It had a nickname.
1:30
Sunshine Parkway or something like that.
1:33
But this was the only road from the north down to Florida,
1:40
and if you went to Florida, you had to come down this road.
1:44
You had no choice.
1:46
And my granddaddy,
1:50
when he built River Bend...
1:55
he saw an opportunity to make the family a fine living
2:00
by offering lodging and Gramma's wonderful meals.
2:06
All right, now here--
2:07
Oh, look, River Bend.
2:10
River Bend, and look,
2:12
that was the service station right over there.
2:15
Michael, this is where it started.
2:17
- Uh-huh.
2:19
- And the cabin sat back there.
2:21
- Where?
2:22
- Right back there amongst all those trees.
2:25
- Uh-huh.
2:26
- And the hotel was right there.
2:30
It's breathtaking.
2:33
- I want to go fishing.
2:34
- Just breathtak-- oh, Granddaddy.
2:37
Granddaddy would stand out here, Michael, he was...
2:41
a fly-fisherman like you wouldn't believe.
2:45
Watching him fly-fish was like watching poetry in motion.
2:49
- Mm-hmm. - And--of course,
2:51
Gramma was a fisherman from way back
2:55
and so was Mama and Aunt Peggy.
2:58
Oh.
3:01
But you can see why I wanted to name our house River Bend.
3:04
- Oh, without a doubt. This is just simply gorgeous.
3:06
- Because it's--
3:08
it's just an incredible, incredible spot,
3:13
and oh, you know, I know that Bobby makes fun of me--
3:17
[both laughing]
3:19
But this is truly where it started.
3:21
My first memory is... here.
3:25
It's gorgeous, isn't it?
3:27
- Mm-hmm.
3:29
[upbeat music]
3:32
♪
3:40
So this truly is where it all started.
3:43
[both laughing]
3:50
I so hope y'all are enjoying the show.
3:52
And if you do.
3:54
Be sure to click like, subscribe and
3:57
notification bell so you'll never miss a video.
4:01
And we'll be right back after the break.
4:06
[country music]
4:09
♪
4:15
- In honor of River Bend
4:17
and my grandmother and grandfather Paul,
4:20
I'm gonna cook a typical meal
4:23
that my grandmother would have cooked,
4:24
'cause my granddaddy was a huge fisherman.
4:28
He loved fly-fishing,
4:31
but I couldn't get my hands on any trout today.
4:34
So that's all right, He caught
4:35
a many a Brim and catfish in that river,
4:40
so, I'm gonna be preparing y'all catfish,
4:43
and I'm gonna do it just like my grandmother
4:45
would have done it.
4:46
I'm gon' probably make one little change.
4:48
And I want to show y'all something real quick-like
4:51
before we get started 'cause I got real tickled.
4:54
I've got a phony tail.
4:57
Y'all know what a phony tail is, don't you?
4:59
Well, I looked down and Lulu is under the stove
5:03
and she's sticking out a little,
5:05
and I thought, "Dadgum, those dogs
5:07
have gotten ahold of my phony tail!"
5:09
[laughs]
5:10
And thank goodness, I mean, it looked just like it.
5:13
She's moved back a little bit more,
5:15
but it looked just like my phony tail.
5:19
Lulu and I have the same color hair.
5:21
We go to the same hairdresser.
5:23
[laughs]
5:24
So, let's get started on today's meal.
5:28
I have got my coleslaw all ready.
5:32
My Aunt Peggy taught me years ago
5:33
to put bell pepper in your coleslaw
5:36
because it gives it that great crunch.
5:40
And so that's all I got to do, really, is just stir that in,
5:44
and this is ready.
5:46
I mix some vinegar and sugar together,
5:50
and then stir it in my mayonnaise.
5:53
And I use some Silly Salt in it.
5:56
Okay.
5:59
I made my coleslaw in a big bowl,
6:01
so I'm just gonna transfer it...
6:04
into a nice, clean bowl.
6:07
Oh, and guess what else I'm cooking?
6:09
You know, we couldn't have fish that we didn't have grits,
6:13
so I've got a nice pot of buttery, creamy grits
6:17
going back there.
6:21
Ooh, that looks so good.
6:24
It's gonna be so good and crunchy.
6:26
All right, so, that's done.
6:30
You know, a fish meal is very, very easy to do.
6:34
It doesn't take that long, 'cause--
6:37
you know, I've said it 1,000 times,
6:38
but I'll say it one more time,
6:40
You don't want to overcook your fish,
6:43
because that will definitely ruin it.
6:47
All right, so one down.
6:54
Y'all, the grits are looking good.
6:56
I just added a little bit more water,
6:58
so while your grits are cooking, you know,
7:00
you may have to adjust it a little bit,
7:02
and that's all right. It's fine.
7:03
As long as you got enough salt in it,
7:06
because if you don't put your salt in it
7:08
when you first start cooking grits,
7:10
you will never get 'em salty enough.
7:13
I don't know what it is about that,
7:15
but you want to make sure your water's good and salty.
7:18
So, the grits are ready, the tartar sauce are ready,
7:22
the slaw are ready, so all I've got to do
7:24
is make the hush puppies and then fry
7:27
my, uh, catfish filets, and it's gonna be so good, y'all.
7:32
So I'm gonna go ahead and season...my fish,
7:37
and you want to make sure when you're cooking fish
7:39
that you got it good and salty.
7:42
[acoustic guitar music]
7:44
Because remember, this came out of fresh water,
7:47
so it didn't have that salt water
7:49
to, you know, make it even more salty.
7:53
So I'm gonna flip these over.
7:56
This was a big ole catfish, y'all.
8:00
This was a fine looking catfish.
8:03
♪
8:09
I hope y'all are enjoying the show
8:12
and I want to hear from you.
8:13
Tell me what recipes or videos you'd like to see me
8:16
make by just leaving a short comment below.
8:20
Now, let's get back to the show, y'all.
8:24
[upbeat music]
8:27
♪
8:35
So let me tell y'all what actually took me back to Albany.
8:40
I had a class reunion.
8:43
I'd be lying if I said I-I didn't get
8:46
just a little bit nervous,
8:47
that I wasn't a little nervous...
8:52
'cause you want people to say, "Oh, gosh, Paula,
8:56
you look good. Time's been good to you."
8:58
You know, you don't want to pull up and say,
9:00
"Whew, what happened to her?" [laughs]
9:04
Y'all, here we are... at our reunion.
9:09
50 years ago, these were the most important people
9:14
in the whole entire world.
9:16
Y'all, this is Judy Holdman. - [laughs]
9:17
- Oh.
9:19
- She and I were cheerleaders together.
9:21
- That's right.
9:22
- Caroline! [laughs] - Ah! [laughs]
9:25
- This is Barbara. Look, she hasn't aged a bit.
9:27
This is David Campbell. This is Caroline Crumb.
9:30
- Right. - Caroline and I played together
9:32
as little girls. - Yeah, yeah.
9:33
- Our parents were, like, best friends.
9:35
- Right. Yeah. - We played jacks. [laughs]
9:37
- We played Jackstones together, honey.
9:39
- That's it, that's it.
9:40
- You look so beautiful.
9:41
- Well, thank you, thank you. - Yeah.
9:43
- Now, I've got to tell y'all something.
9:44
- Oh, no, no. - This is Patricia Whitman.
9:46
- She was on our cheerleading squad.
9:48
She was the only one that could do those flips
9:50
and all that back stuff-- that fancy stuff.
9:52
[laughter] Us other girls
9:53
just had to swish our hips and kind of look cute.
9:55
- And look good. [laughter]
9:58
- And I had such a good time.
10:02
Y'all, I think I danced until midnight,
10:04
believe it or not, 'cause I'm not much of a dancer.
10:08
Even though I've been on "Dancing with the Stars"
10:10
I'm not much of a dancer, but I had such a good time.
10:14
We had the best band in the whole entire world
10:17
playing for us.
10:19
Now, I'm gonna sprinkle--
10:21
this is just a little Old Bay.
10:24
So I'm gon' sit that aside,
10:27
and I'm gonna get started making our hush puppies.
10:32
Now, I like to put a good bit of flour in my hush puppies.
10:37
Some people won't put but like a tablespoon or two,
10:41
but I use more than that,
10:43
because, you know, I just prefer flour over meal.
10:47
Now, I'm gon' start by putting one cup.
10:51
In fact, I bought this meal while I was in Albany, y'all.
10:56
Oh, I can't seem to find real good meal
11:00
over here in Savannah.
11:02
So this is some good ole plain corn meal.
11:06
It's a fine ground meal, and it's just the best.
11:12
All right, so I'm gonna use... my 1/2 a cup measurer.
11:19
And I'm gon' put about 1/2 cup of--
11:22
I'm using self-rising flour. That's, all right,
11:25
one's self-rising and one's...plain,
11:29
but that's all right, because I'm adding
11:32
a teaspoon of soda
11:34
and a teaspoon and a half of baking powder,
11:37
and I'm gonna need about a teaspoon of salt.
11:44
So that looks about, like, a teaspoon.
11:46
I hope it's not too much.
11:48
So I'm just gon' mix that together.
11:52
I'm gon' put my egg in.
11:56
All right, so now I'm gonna probably add about a cup--
12:01
a cup of buttermilk. It'll probably take,
12:04
uh, 2 cups of this, maybe a little bit more.
12:08
After you get your hush puppies made,
12:11
you want to let 'em sit a little bit,
12:12
because it'll swell up and all blend together,
12:16
and it may turn out that you need a little bit more liquid.
12:21
[upbeat music]
12:24
♪
12:27
And I like a lot of onion.
12:31
All right, so I'm gonna switch this
12:34
to one of my neatest bowls in the world.
12:37
This is actually a hush puppy bowl, y'all.
12:40
So you want this pretty thick...
12:43
'cause you don't want-- when you drop
12:44
your hush puppy batter
12:47
you don't want it going every which-a-way, so...
12:51
this is what that extra little bowl is for, y'all.
12:55
♪
12:56
It's for your water,
12:59
because before I can drop a hush puppy in the pot,
13:03
you have to dip your spoon in water,
13:05
and when you drop that hush puppy in,
13:07
it'll all just slide right out of that spoon.
13:11
♪
13:22
I so hope y'all are enjoying the show.
13:25
And if you do.
13:26
Be sure to click like, subscribe and
13:29
notification bell so you'll never miss a video.
13:33
And we'll be right back after the break.
13:38
[upbeat music]
13:41
♪
13:47
- Okay, kiddos, so now we're ready
13:50
to, um, address the fish.
13:53
Now, I sprinkled it with salt and pepper
13:55
and a little Old Bay, and now, my gramma--
13:58
this is where we differ, y'all.
14:01
My gramma would use straight meal,
14:04
where my mother introduced flour into the mix,
14:09
and I like that so much better,
14:12
so I'm gonna actually use more flour than I do meal.
14:17
♪
14:19
And I'm just using an all-purpose meal,
14:22
just like I made my hush puppies from,
14:24
but I'm using self-rising flour,
14:26
so it really doesn't matter.
14:29
All right, so you just want to mix that up real good,
14:33
and then we're gonna dip our catfish filets in that.
14:37
Oh, you know what, I wanted to sprinkle this
14:39
with a little buttermilk.
14:41
By sprinkling a little buttermilk
14:44
it'll just help it stick.
14:47
I think buttermilk kind of makes everything fried
14:49
a little bit better, don't y'all? [laughs]
14:54
All right, so here we go.
14:57
Into our mixture...
15:00
and into the frying pan. You know what?
15:03
I think--I think I'm gon' cut these in two,
15:06
'cause like I said, that was a dadgum big catfish.
15:10
All right, I need to check and see
15:12
what temperature our grease is at.
15:14
I like to fry at 350.
15:17
I really probably should've had a bigger pot.
15:20
I would feel better if I was cooking this in my Dutch oven,
15:23
which is...
15:25
We all have our memories, don't we?
15:30
Every one of us has memories of when we were a child,
15:33
you know, and I'm always referring to the safe years,
15:38
you know, where you feel so safe,
15:39
and this just brings back all those memories
15:44
of that wonderful restaurant there at River Bend
15:47
where my grandmother ran it like clockwork.
15:52
She was so good at what she did.
15:57
I can just see my Aunt Trina.
15:58
She had just white blond hair
16:02
and she was three years older than me,
16:04
and she got me in so much trouble.
16:06
She'd send me to raid the candy counter,
16:11
and I can just hear my granddaddy hollering,
16:16
"That little heifer is eating up all of our profits!
16:19
Corrie, get that little heifer out of here!"
16:21
[laughs]
16:23
Corrie was my mama.
16:24
We all have those memories,
16:26
and I hope that y'all can look back in your memory lane
16:32
and get as much comfort from your memories
16:38
as I do from mine.
16:40
And you know what? I may--
16:43
I may stick a few hush puppies in
16:46
around where I got a little room.
16:50
I want to show y'all how that--
16:52
See? That water makes that batter just fall right off.
16:57
It's the greatest little trick.
17:03
So I got everything ready.
17:04
I got my wonderful creamy grits
17:08
and the crunchy, crispy coleslaw,
17:12
and, of course, the fried fish and the hush puppies.
17:15
And I love this because it's actually some things
17:18
I can taste without my friends knowing
17:20
that I've been in it first, 'cause I am a stickler
17:24
about making sure that food is perfect
17:26
before I call everybody to the table.
17:29
So look at--look at those buttery grits, y'all.
17:36
I gotta have some coleslaw to cool those off.
17:39
They're hot as fire... but so good, so creamy.
17:43
So I used milk,
17:45
and I put about 1/2 cup of half and half in 'em
17:48
and butter and salt and pepper.
17:51
Nothing fancy. No big tricks.
17:55
Mmm, the coleslaw is delicious.
17:58
And you know, I was telling y'all I just love
18:00
a little bit of tartar sauce with my hush puppies.
18:04
Mmm, so good. Mmm!
18:08
Delicious.
18:09
The tartar sauce is just, like,
18:12
couple of handfuls of diced dill pickles
18:17
and a onion and mayonnaise,
18:19
and then I put a little Silly Salt
18:21
and that's it.
18:22
And of course, y'all saw what I did to the fish.
18:27
Oh, my gosh, it's delicious.
18:30
And that little bit of seasoning that I put on it
18:32
just really makes it pop.
18:36
So, I hope y'all had fun today visiting with me.
18:40
I hope you had fun going to River Bend,
18:43
and then coming back to my modern day River Bend.
18:48
Yup, we wound up naming this piece of property
18:51
"River Bend."
18:53
I didn't even realize in my subconscious
18:56
I was trying to recreate the place that I grew up in.
19:01
Of course, we don't have a motel here
19:02
and we don't have a restaurant.
19:03
Sometimes I feel like it's a motel,
19:07
the way people come and visit and stay with me,
19:09
but anyway, I hope y'all had fun,
19:12
'cause I certainly had fun being with y'all.
19:15
I look so forward to visiting with you at least once a week.
19:20
Y'all have a blessed day, and love and best dishes.
19:24
[laughs]
19:26
Yum.
19:29
Mmm. Mmm, mmm, mmm.
19:31
[upbeat music]
19:37
- I'll never forget going in the bank.
19:39
It was four teller lines,
19:41
and you'd go in on a Friday afternoon,
19:44
and there would be nine people in one line
19:46
and the other three lines would be nobody there.
19:50
And they wouldn't look to another teller
19:52
'cause they were trying to get 'em to come down,
19:53
and what it amounted to is everybody wanted to go up
19:56
and let Paula wait on 'em.
19:58
I can remember going in and putting $5
20:01
in my passbook savings just to be able
20:04
to get up close to Paula and say hey
20:06
and cut up with her a few minutes.
20:08
What a sweet lady she is, and...
20:11
really interesting, and we're so proud of her success
20:14
and what all she's done
20:15
and how she's given back to the community, and--
20:18
in Albany, we claim Paula. We really do,
20:21
and we think--we think she's a fantastic lady,
20:26
and we just-- we wish her the best.
20:30
Thank you.
20:31
[soothing music]
20:34
♪
20:51
Hey, y'all, it's Paula Deen.
20:53
Now, if you enjoyed this video, be sure to like it
20:56
and click the subscribe button as well as the notification
21:00
and bail to be alerted when I post a video.
21:04
Love and Best Dishes Y'all.
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