fish fry
we went fishing at cochiti lake the other day and ended up with our best catch this summer: two pretty large catfish and a little bluegill (my only catch).
we got home and were exhausted, but knew we had to deal with the fish. tim had never filleted a catfish before, but we agreed it sounded easier than the option of skinning and cleaning the entire fish. the filleting went ok – i did the smaller one, then he did the larger one and did a better job than i did. but we got some nice fillets out of it. (and on the plus side, i think i managed to gross out my parents and brother completely when they came in to the kitchen and i was halfway through a fillet, blood all over the place.)
i rinsed and dried them, dipped them in flour, dipped them in an egg and lemon juice mixture, and then coated them in a mixture of yellow cornmeal, salt, pepper, cayenne, and paprika. they went into a skillet with a shallow layer of hot, already-browning butter… and they turned out delicious. best catfish i’ve ever had. the breading was light and crispy, the fish tender and tangy. i didn’t use any sauce or topping on it and it was perfect.
we cleaned the bluegill, descaled it, and wrapped it in foil with butter, salt, and pepper and grilled it. it was small but tasty.
to accompany, we used one of the gigantic zucchinis from my parents garden to make calabacitas. i had tim dice the zucchini, a whole onion, and two tomatoes and then mince some garlic. i threw everything except the tomatoes in a pot with olive oil and salt over medium-high heat until it started to cook down. i added some frozen corn and continued cooking. once everything was starting to soften, i turned down the head and added tomatoes, dried oregano, some green chile sauce, and cumin. i continued to cook, adjusting salt and seasoning as neccessary, until everything was tender but not yet mushy. right at the end, i added some butter and milk for a creamy touch.
the 50 cent box of macaroni and cheese we made as our other side is hardly worth mentioning as a cooking adventure, but i will say that mac and cheese goes extremely good with calabacitas 
Y’know, I’ve never had calabacitas before. Looks pretty simple (not that I have green chile…or cumin…). I will bookmark this for when I get som zucchini/tomatoes/corn (perhaps I should hit up the farmer’s market this Saturday).
ooh, it’s my favorite. it comes out a little different every time. i’ve made it without chile and cumin and it’s still good… i have used bell peppers before too, which kind of gives the pepper flavor without chile. you can use yellow squash too, usually i use a mixture.
i think the most important improvement i’ve made to it since the early days of making it is to cut everything equal sizes (except garlic). i used to leave the squash pieces really big and it would take too long to cook.
Looks scrumptious!