Blackened Stuffed Catfish | Fit to Eat | MPB

This program was made possible in part by:
Family traditions are never more important than when
families gather around the dinner table
to celebrate special occasions.
Farm Families of Mississippi share
the bounty of the harvest with families
throughout the state and even the nation.
Chances are that your gatherings include
delicious sweet corn, baked sweet potatoes
and a rich, golden pecan pie.
Buy Mississippi-grown products.
It's good for your family, and it's good for Mississippi.
The Farm Families of Mississippi.
Mississippi Seafood Marketing a division of The
Department of Marine Resources.
From our waters to your table fresh,
local, healthy.
Information available at DMR.MS.GOV
♪♪
Well hi, I'm chef Rob Stinson and this is
Fit to Eat, a new series about eating healthy
and living better.
Mississippi is at the bottom of national studies
in health and nutrition.
Diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and obesity
run rampant in our great state.
I'm here to demonstrate how little changes in diet can
make a big difference in health.
Making those changes doesn't mean you have to
sacrifice flavor to get rid of fat.
Taking fresh, local ingredients,
I'm going to teach you to make meals that are healthy
and delicious without spending a fortune.
And as always, you can find my recipes with all the
nutritional information on our website.
Today, we are going to focus on an unsung hero
in the state of Mississippi, and that is pond-raised catfish.
We have the best in the world and I tell you,
it is absolutely one of my favorite meals.
What were going to do today is show you an alternative
to frying catfish and still keep great flavor.
I get really excited about catfish because you can
prepare it so many different ways.
Today, we've got about 5 ounces of catfish
that are going to be our portion.
So it's a light portion.
But the way they are going to be blackened,
we are going to do this with some
blackened seasoning that has no salt.
Most of you out there might not be aware,
but when you look on a package of
blackened seasoning, it's typically 50% to 60% salt.
So obviously as we move through the series,
my biggest focus is going to be trying to shift
the way you eat into a healthier style of cooking.
We are going to have a little bit of fun today
and do a corn mock chow.
All that is is corn off the cob that we
are going to sear with some beautiful garlic,
peppers, basil.
A wonderful side dish.
Cook our catfish with that very light salt program
for blackening and then top it with a stuffing that
is every bit as delicious that has virtually no cheese,
light whole-wheat breadcrumbs,
and focus in on binding it with an egg white.
It sounds like a whole lot going on.
It really is, so let's get started.
First thing we are going to do is kick the heat up
over here on this water.
What we want to do is take this beautiful
corn on the cob.
I'm going to put some extra in here.
We are only going to use two of these,
but we are going to go ahead
and have some fun and get some extra.
I'm sure there's some people around here
who might find that enjoyable, namely the crew.
Anyhow, I always find it pays
to take care of the crew.
Now we are going to kick the heat up on high.
The key on this is we are not trying to cook the corn
all the way through.
All I want to do is cook it until it is almost what you
would call with pasta al dente where it's still got
a nice chew to it.
Then we are going to trim it off the cob and then use
that in the pan so that we can sear the corn.
It gives it a really neat flavor that way.
It's a little different.
That's one of the fun parts about doing this.
Traditionally, what do you do with corn?
You soak it with butter, put a lot of salt
on it and eat it.
This is definitely a healthier alternative with corn.
So let's let that sit on the side.
Now we will come back over here and focus on putting
together a healthy blackened seasoning.
For a lot of people it's hard to think
about not going with salt.
But I want you to watch because this is an easy way
to make your own seasoning.
And once this is done, it will last for months.
We are going to start off with the courser products
which are some ground Italian seasonings,
some cracked black pepper.
And as we go with this, we're going
to kind of mix them all as we go.
Now we are going to add in some onion powder.
Please, when you buy it at the store,
be careful that what you are buying is not onion
ground with salt.
Onion powder has no salt.
Now we are going to add to it our garlic.
And that's, again, is garlic powder, no salt.
We are going to get this mixed together.
Anybody who has seen blackened seasoning
knows that it is always an orange color.
All of this is in there, I promise you.
The paprika what's going to give it the color.
Now were going to take and use a little bit of ground sage.
All of the recipes that you are seeing and especially
one this detailed, you can go to our website:
It will have every bit of the detail explained to you
because it's hard to remember the proportions.
So far we have put an ounce
of each one of those ingredients.
This is just a quarter ounce of sage.
Sage is a stronger herb, and you want to use it more sparingly.
Then we're going to add in our ground thyme.
And a little bit of the cayenne pepper.
And finally were going to add in our paprika.
What we do at this point is really
make sure it's mixed well.
Any one of those components in and of itself
is not really what you want.
I love making up my own.
I keep this at my house.
I use it anytime I want to season items.
And I tell you, it's versatile.
Not just catfish, not just fish,
it works on steaks, chicken,
almost anything, Portobello mushrooms.
It's incredible with Portobello mushrooms.
You see now we've got that traditional orange look.
I didn't really mention it again but when you put
that paprika in, there is considerably more paprika
in the recipe then some of the other ingredients.
I know I have just said it, but I really want you
to remember details like this recipe
are available on our website:
We've got our blackened seasoning ready.
We're going to move that over to the side.
I'm going to put this front burner on because
we're going to make up our stuffing.
There are many of you out there who
do their own stuffing, I'm sure.
I'm going to turn that heat down on that corn.
I'm going to remove the lid.
There we go.
It's got a nice little flame to it
without it being too much.
I tell you what, the easiest way to tell,
get your tongs, pull it out, feel the kernel.
Still very firm so we want to let it go a little more.
I'm going to warn you, I've got a pan in back here
getting really hot.
I can feel the heat all the way up here with my hand.
That's going to be the pan that we sear
the blackened catfish in.
This is one of those dishes where you've got
to have a little fun with it.
It got to be a little bold because it may
smoke up the house a little bit.
But anybody who's ever blackened anything,
you do it traditionally in a heap of oil.
Were not going to do it that way so it
won't smoke as bad today.
So anyway, our corn looked great.
I'm just going to turn them here and let them go.
So now were getting our pan in front hot.
That pan is where we are going to start
this delicious vegetable stuffing.
That's more what it is than anything else.
There's two parts to cooking it.
Let's get that little bit of oil in the pan.
Were talking a half a teaspoon to start with.
You're going to hear me harp about this throughout
the series: don't use too much oil.
There's no reason for it.
The first item that goes in will be our onions.
They're diced.
Want to try to get them to a nice consistent small dice.
Then we are adding in the garlic.
Anybody who knows me, garlic is my favorite seasoning.
I swear, I really feel for those of you out there
who may not be able to eat garlic.
We are going to throw into it a little bit of diced celery,
and diced green bell pepper.
We've got a couple of other ingredients,
but I want to let this go a little bit first.
We're going to move that around the pan.
Breakup that one piece in there.
And get all of this going.
Let it brown nice and slowly,
and I tell you why.
This is all going to get grilled at a later point
so we are not looking to actually brown
all of this food.
Doing this stuffing is so unique.
You can find that recipe on our website:
Everything's looking good so far.
Now we add the punch: a little bit of our cayenne pepper.
And then a little bit of fresh cracked pepper.
It's wonderful to go in there and we're
going to kind of grind it not too fine.
And you notice we haven't used salt.
We really don't need it.
We're going to put one little dash of water
in there to kind of get that going.
We're going to pull it off the heat to add
in the rest of our ingredients and mix this
so that the temperature is not too much.
We want to be able to blend in
and get all of those fresh vegetables.
We are really just making a small amount
of this stuffing for each portion.
That looks great right now.
Let's move this pan forward and leave that one
in the center for now.
Add in our green onions.
We're going to add in a tablespoon
of whole-wheat flour.
It's really nice to give a shot to trying something
a little bit different than using your traditional
breadcrumbs that you would.
And this is gluten-free.
This is something that someone can eat.
I love the flavor that you get.
Now the trick, the binder in this is an egg white.
We're going to take an egg, separate it out.
A lot of protein in that egg white.
Eggs are really incredibly healthy for you.
We're going to pop that egg white in
and stir it all together with the stuffing.
It was thinking that doesn't look like stuffing.
The last tablespoon, throw in,
of our whole-wheat and then let this all congeal
and it turns into a beautiful stuffing
that's going to be grilled on the pan.
So you've got a nice kind of crispness
that this will bring about.
That's mixed really well.
Let's let that sit a minute.
We'll stir it up one more time and then get it
in our pan when we are ready to cook.
But I mentioned to you before,
you really want that pan hot where you're
going to be doing your blackened catfish.
So I've got a pan in the back here
getting very hot as we speak.
Now, let's take a look.
Bring a plate up and see how our corn is doing.
Obviously very hot at this point.
Were going to take two of these to use.
Turn that heat off entirely.
You can see them steaming really well here.
Another trick, let's take and cut in
and cut away from yourself.
You don't need these hot corn kernels hitting you.
Remember, cut down and then right into the cob
and you pretty much can't pull them right off this way.
I think this is a great trick to learn, too.
I discovered this years ago working in New Orleans.
I had worked with a chef who loved doing
a corn mock chow and it was one of my favorite dishes
because you have both that healthy aspect of the corn,
but you can get so much more flavor when you sauté
that corn with some garlic, roasted peppers and so on.
We're going to cut it right down.
We end up with a beautiful, fresh, crisp corn.
Pop all of those off.
We are ready with that one.
We're going to do number two.
And you can see it's a beautiful plate of corn already.
You really have got quite a bit going on with that.
And then were going to take that go back
into a pan and give it some real flavor.
Just take us a second more here.
I want to mention while I'm doing this that you can
visualize and actually get a great handle on all of
these recipes by going to our website:
Yours truly will keep adding to those recipes,
but they have all the nutritional breakdowns
so you know exactly what you're getting
and how healthy the food is.
Remember, this dish is an alternative to frying catfish.
I can't even begin to tell you how much healthier
this version of the catfish is than fried catfish.
So make those small steps in your life to make
a change and eat a little bit healthier and you're going
to find if you follow this series,
you don't sacrifice flavor-
just like I said at the outset- at all.
Right now, we've got a beautiful plate of corn
and it's ready to go into the sauté pan as we speak.
Were going to take, now, and this pan
in the left front I'm going to warm.
and get some of our corn and garlic working right now.
Garlic, diced red pepper, throw our corn in.
It might be a little bit more.
You know, that was two nice corncobs.
Corn is such a rarity right now that I love using it.
That, by the way, came from a beautiful farmers market
right here in Mississippi.
So remember, the premise of the show,
everything should be homegrown.
Everything that we can that you see on the show
is going to come from Mississippi.
We're going to throw in some diced green onion
and then we're going to add in some julienned basil.
Going to save some of that basil and have a little fun
at the tail end and then watch.
A lot of you see me throwing food
in a sauté pan and you're thinking
I can't do that at home.
I promise you, if you practice with a piece of toast-
I know it sounds corny- no pun intended either.
But try it with a piece of toast.
If you can flip that piece of toast,
you can flip what's in your sauté pan.
We're going to take this, pull it back
because it's basically complete.
Through this pan back on.
So we don't have to add any more oil whatsoever.
Make sure that heat is on.
We're going to start grilling our stuffing
that's going to go with the catfish.
In that pan.
We're going to make it into a paddy when we get it
in the pan and then leave it there
while it's browning on one side.
You want to get it a little bit flat.
We will pull that out with a spatula
and it shouldn't be a problem.
All that good stuff, you want to try to get
as much of it in there as you possibly can.
I tell you what, the aroma of this corn is incredible.
The colors look so good.
I really think when you do start eating healthy,
you're going to become more conscious of how the food
looks because you really end up enjoying it
as a new past time, making beautiful food
that eats so well and it's so healthy.
Let's move this to the front.
This is my pan that is extremely hot.
We're going to put a teaspoon of oil.
So this has got a little bit more oil,
but not too much.
How do you know the pan is hot?
It's going to dance around inside that pan.
You come back and while we're doing this,
we've got our beautiful catfish,
we've got our pan ready.
And all of this, again this gets confusing.
There is a lot going on, huh?
All of this, you can pick up on the website:
So what are we going to do?
Let's take a little tiny spoon and shake
around our new blackened seasoning that
we showed you that so healthy with no salt.
You're really not looking to dredge it.
Sometimes I'll eat blackened product
that people make, and it's so over laden
with blackened seasoning that it's hard to enjoy it.
I'm going to check our stuffing, here.
Oh, perfect!
We're going to turn the heat down on low
because that stuffing is going to grill.
That is perfect.
You can see it's got a beautiful brown
when we bring it to the plate.
You'll be able to notice it.
Now, the fun part.
I'm going to head over here and this one,
you've got to watch closely.
Let's take our tongs and were going to
put the blackened catfish in the pan away from you.
You're going to hear me talk a lot about that a lot.
There's nothing worse than popping some oil on to you.
I said this one was going to smoke.
I wasn't kidding, huh?
Can you see me back here?
Anyhow, catfish fillets this size will
not take long to cook.
So the beautiful part about it is they are searing great
right now and I tell you what.
We're going to keep an eye on them.
The trick when you're searing something
in light oil when you don't have enough to really move it
around is put it there and don't touch it.
Let it go.
On a small fillet like this,
we're talking maybe 3 minutes
in a pan that hot.
No more.
You do not want to overcook it.
Catfish has got such a great quality,
so we're just about ready and I'm hoping
we can actually get a great view because when these turn--
I tell you, we are going to add just a touch,
just a pinch on the bottom.
It's what I do at home.
I don't want it to be over laden
with blackened seasoning.
We are ready now to take that...
It looks incredible.
That's incredible.
That's exactly the look you want.
It just has a beautiful crust,
while at the same time light.
Not too much.
In other words, it doesn't have that heady flavor
or coating of blackened seasoning.
We are getting close here, guys.
I tell you what's going to be fun on this one
is we are going to finish that catfish.
Turn the temperature up on everything else
that goes on the plate.
In the meantime, were going to dress our plate a little bit.
I've got a bed of mixed greens.
What's up with that?
It's a beautiful way to add in
a healthy component to your plate.
I'm going to put the hot catfish right on top of it.
So what does that do?
It's going to wilt the mixed greens by the catfish
and the catfish seasoning gets in with those mixed
greens and it becomes a great addition to the dish.
It isn't just there for looks.
I love doing that.
Let's take a look.
And we're going to start building
this dish carefully, here.
One fillet at a time.
Incredible.
I mean, that's perfect.
That's exactly the way you want it to look.
I hear you saying I thought it was stuffed catfish.
Why isn't the stuffing in the fish?
I've never been a big advocate of putting
stuffing inside fish whether it's flounder,
or grouper, or trout.
I love to get the crispness on both sides
of my stuffing and then layer it on top of the fish.
I tell you what's nice about that.
You actually can get each distinct flavor
separate if you so desire.
Otherwise, you just take a bite of both and you've got them.
I think it's a really great way,
though, to add texture to a dish.
You're thinking catfish, fried, crispy.
Now you've got a crisp crust,
no breadcrumbs, no oil--virtually no oil.
But I'm talking it's not fried.
It is such a great alternative.
Let's come back over here and take that beautiful
stuffing that we made and it's going to sit right
on top of the catfish just perfectly.
I'm going to kill the heat on these because what
we are going to come back to is find a nice little bit
of our julienned basil as a garnish.
Again, I think it's important to try to make
your food pretty when you have it.
Let's toss our corn.
Good and hot.
You can see the steam coming right off of it.
I want to say one quick thank you
to the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources,
their seafood marketing department.
They are actually the ones that donated
this catfish for the dish.
So thank you.
Irvin Jackson is over there at the Department
of Marine Resources seafood marketing program.
I tell you what, they deserve every kudo in the world.
We have the best seafood in the world right here
in the state of Mississippi.
I live down on the Gulf Coast and I love having
the accessibility to beautiful fresh local everything
natural in seafood just like you're seeing here today.
And I'm going to tell you what,
as I look at this dish, it's both pleasing
to the eye, the flavor is incredible.
And remember you can find all my recipes
with the nutritional information on our website:.
Enjoy it.
We will have a great time I see you next.
I'm Chef Rob Stinson.
Thanks for watching Fit to Eat.
♪♪
This program was made possible in part by:
Family traditions are never more important than when
families gather around the dinner table
to celebrate special occasions.
Farm Families of Mississippi share
the bounty of the harvest with families throughout
the state and even the nation.
Chances are that your gatherings include
delicious sweet corn, baked sweet potatoes
and a rich, golden pecan pie.
Buy Mississippi- grown products.
It's good for your family
and it's good for Mississippi.
The Farm Families of Mississippi.
Support for Fit to Eat comes from Mississippi
Seafood Marketing a division of The Department
of Marine Resources.
From our waters to your table.
Wild-caught gulf-fresh seafood is fresh,
local and healthy.
Information at DMR.MS.GOV