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Blackened Catfish and Spicy Pinapple Salsa

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 It’s spring time, which means that Boone and I try to eat as much fish and fruit as possible…also, on springtime Sunday afternoons, all I want is a homemade frozen margarita for some reason, and spicy food goes just great with that.Plus, when we went down to the Fla Keys last fall I think every single meal I had something blackened, so it was time to try our hand at that. On top of that, since I’m back on the weight watchers wagon (whooo!!! or booo! depending on who you ask…) and since we may or may not have eaten chinese food on Saturday night, we wanted something light.You may have seen the catfish tacos that I posted last year, and this is a similar idea with different flavors. If you liked those, read on for your own spring time blackened catfish feast.
 
What you need for the catfish
a cast iron skillet
4 catfish fillets
4 sprays cooking spray
For the Rub
 2 1/2 Tablespoons Paprika
2 Tbs Salt
2 T garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T dried oregano
1 T french poultry seasoning (in place of thyme)
What you need for the salsa
1 can of pinapple rounds (or one fresh pinapple, peeled and cored), diced
1 medium fresh tomato, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 jalepeno chile (diced fine)
Juice of 2 fresh limes
salt to taste
we didn’t have any, but I’d also recommend cilantro.

Serve with Greek Yogurt and cilantro!

What to do: 
Start by dicing all of the fruit and the onion and jalepeno and combining in the large bowl.
 
once everything is diced in about the same size pieces, juice the lime and pour it over the fruit. Salt to taste. Let this stand and marinate for at least 30 minutes, if not longer so the flavors meld together and it gets spicy and sweet.
Once that’s ready, start preparing the fish by mixing the spices together to make the rub. Once that’s taken care of, set aside and heat the cast iron skillet on high for  6 minutes. it may smoke, but you need it to be hot enough to blacken…but not hot so hot that it cracks (because you can do that to a skillet, btw).
pat the fillets dry, and then cover them in about 1 tablespoon of rub per fillet. You can use more, but 1 tablespoon does the trick. Once you’re ready to blacken, spray the skillet with cooking spray.

place the catfish in the pan making sure that the fillets don’t touch. If they touch, the meat steams rather than crisps…which just isn’t the same as blackened. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, until the fish is firm and flakey… you’ll know it’s ready because there’ll be a nice black crust on the top.

 

VOILA! serve with tortilla chips  or saffron rice and black beans and a dollop of plain greek yogurt on the top for a tropical-ish treat using my favorite southern fish!

 

Catfish tacos with purple cabbage slaw.

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Catfish Tacos with Purple Cabbage Slaw
Serves 2.5, Weight watchers points: 4 per taco + 1 for the slaw

You haven’t heard from me in weeks…first of all, things have been craaaa–zeeee since about mid-march, and secondly, because I joined weight watchers and needed an adjustment period to figure out what was friendly to weight loss and what…isn’t. turns out that most southern food is on the no-nos list…but together we’ll sort things out and figure our delicious ways to eat the foods we love with fewer calories, less fat, and just as much flavor!

Which brings me to tonight’s post…Catfish tacos. I’ve heard from lots of people who didn’t grow up eating catfish (read: folks not from MS) that the slightly earthy taste isn’t super appealing to them…but honestly, if you like trout, then farm raised catfish should be right up your alley. no..you don’t get to take exotic mountain vacations to go fishing for catfish, BUT it’s a southern-raised, eco-friendly fish option that when cooked well has an incredible freshness and firm but flaky texture. as a mississippi girl, catfish is my go-to freshwater fish.

If you’re still not sold, then this recipe is the PERFECT way to experiment. Wrapping up the fish in a tortillia with avacado, tomatoes, and cilantro means that you get some of the lovely earthy fish flavor, but it will be balanced out by the extras. 😉

What you Need: 
For the Tacos:
4 catfish fillets
2 tablespoons of cajun seasoning (tony chachere’s is my personal favorite)
1 tsp cumin
6 small flour tortillas
1/2 bunch of cilantro
10 cherry tomatoes
1 ripe avocado

For the slaw:
1/2 purple cabbage
3 tablespoons greek yogurt
1 red onion
juice of 1 lime
table salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 jalepeno

 What to do:
For the slaw:
Start with the slaw since this takes a few minutes to sit and soak up flavor. shred the cabbage, slice your onion into thin, thin rings, and chop the jalepeno into tiny pieces. Combine that into a bowl and salt it so it begins to wilt. In another bowl, stir the greek yogurt, lime juice, and chili powder, and pour it over the cabbage mixture. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

 

For the tacos:

 

at this point, it’s time for the catfish..it cooks quickly so this should be last! make sure you ahve Mississippi farm raised catfish. Put it in a dish and dust it with the cajun seasoning and the cumin and let sit for a few minutes.

coat a skillet with cooking spray and put the fish in the pan. Let it cook for 4 minutes on each side (or until the fish is firm and no longer sticks to the pan). Once that’s done, set the fish aside.

 

 

either before or as the catfish is cooking, chop your taco toppings… of course you can use other ingredients than these, but these are fresh and light.
 
once the fish is ready, make your tacos! you can use the slaw as a topping or as a side… either way, it’s delicious and so pretty.
If you’re a catfish lover, then you can forgo the tortillas altogether and just serve this with the slaw and all the fixins’. I hope you love this spring recipe as much as I do!