2 - Cups diced bacon
3 - Cups diced onions
6 - Cups diced potatoes
6 - Cups water
5 lbs - Catfish ( I remove all red meat from fish )
2 - 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes
Salt & Pepper & hot sauce to taste
Cook Bacon first, cooked but not crisp.
Add Onions, cooking for 5 minutes.
Add Water & Potatoes, cooking for 10 minutes.
Add Fish next, cover and cook until fish is done enough to fall apart. Break up the chunks of fish by mashing them.
Add Tomatoes & hot sauce, more salt & pepper if needed.
Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Be sure to stir enough to prevent sticking on the bottom of the pot.
Made a 48 quart batch this past Friday for my Wife’s co-workers, for lunch. ( Needed an excuse to try out my new Bayou Classic cooker I got for Christmas ) There was only 4 quarts left in the pot by the time they were done eating…
My dad would disagree with me (the stronger fish taste the better for him), but I like to lightly boil my fish separately(with a pinch of old bay) and discard water. Really mellows the “fishy” flavor down. I also like to add a couple pounds more fish and a few extra whole baby red potatoes. Sometimes I’ll dump a couple cans of whole corn in it to give some texture.
Other than that my recipe is pretty close to yours. Sometimes I’ll split the batch and add a bottle of Ketchup to one batch. Some people like it a little sweeter. If you hear people talk about red or white catfish stew, that’s the difference.
If you ever have a bunch of any fish in the freezer that needs to get used, pretty much any fish can be used in your recipe.
“If Bruce Jenner can keep his wiener and be called a woman, I can keep my firearms and be considered disarmed.”
I’m with your dad Fred ; I want my stew to taste fishy with a little flavor of the added ingredients , not soup with a little fish taste ,
I also like gumbo full of c-fish chunks…
