Blackened Catfish

 

This was our first attemp at blackening, not to be our last.
We decided to do a side by side comparison of cast iron versus
direct heat on a grid. You can see we have a slight problem with
our cast iron skillet.

Problem solved, a cut off wheel on a side grinder
makes short work of cutting CI.

Our fillet being prepped, a liberal coating of melted butter, and a generous
sprinkling of Paul Prudhommes "Blackened Redfish Magic" as was recommended.
On the advice of our friend Little Steven, we placed this buttered and rubbed
fish in the fridge to let the butter set-up. This caused the butter and rub to
stick to the platter, we'll have to come up with a better idea, but the thinking
is right in letting the butter harden back up. Wax paper maybe ????

Here is our cooking set up on the small egg. I was concerned that the
CI griddle was going to block to much air flow as it was almost the
same size as the opening in the fire ring. So we just jacked it up a bit
with some small pices of firebrick.

Cruising along at 650 degrees, we lit with mapp gas, and
immediatley put the griddle in and waited until everything
was HOT...

I was told it was going to smoke...and SMOKE it did. We went for 2 minutes
per side, which I think may have been a little to long. But as I said, this was
our first try so I didn't really know what to expect. Next time will either be
not as hot, or shorter cook time.
   

Ready to come off the griddle, and plated. It may look burned, but it
had no burnt taste to it

Now for our comparison cook, after removing the CI griddle the
dome temp was running over 750 degrees, I closed the lower vent
just a bit. This was cooked the same as the CI fillet was except for
the final 2 minutes were shortened to 1 and a half minutes.
   

The first one plated, and then a side by side view of both cooks.
They were both very good, but we felt the scond one, directly on the grid,
was more moist. That could very well be the reduced cooking time. We
will continue playing with this cook as it is quick and easy and
tasted wonderful.