What’s for Dinner? 20100327: Pecan Oven Baked Catfish

Youngest Son came to visit this week (the reason why there was no Pique the Geek last Sunday, getting ready for his visit).  He is 20 and is in culinary school.  I am actually sort of pleased, as cooking good food is as important as being a scientist, and actually involves a lot of science to do it well.

We had a great time!  After the 10+ hour drive, he was pretty tired, but hungry.  I made Frog Sandwiches for both of us late Monday night (recipe available on request), talked, joked, went meet my dear neighbors across the street, and threw some darts.  Neither of us were very good at darts Monday.

However, this is a food essay, not one about us visiting for several days.  On Tuesday we used the Brinkman smoker that he and his other two brothers bought for me a couple of years ago to smoke a whole chicken.  Smoked chicken is excellent, especially if you have the luxury of using fruit wood.

I had cut down a very poorly performing flowering crab apple tree in my yard late last year, and have been working its wood up for smoking stock.  I love hickory wood for a smoke flavor, but it gets harsh after over a couple of hours.  Fruit wood can be used for many hours to smoke meat without any harshness.  As a rule of thumb, use hickory for fast cooking foods like thin ribs, steaks, chops, and the like.  For a thick piece of material like a chicken or a turkey, use fruit wood.

The smoker uses charcoal or wood, not propane.  This one is square, with a door that has a thermometer in it that opens to expose racks that can be removed and added.  This design is much better than my old smoker, also a Brinkman, that was cylindrical and had to be loaded with fuel, water, and food from the top.  The one with the door that can be accessed is much, much better.  Thanks to the boys for the gift!

We loaded the charcoal bowl with Royal Oak pure hardwood charcoal.  This product is just charred wood, with no processing other than cooling and bagging.  A ten pound bag of it is as large as a twenty pound bag of briquettes, and contains almost as much energy.  Briquettes are ground up wood charcoal, with clay and silicate binders to make their shape.  The binder content of briquettes is often over a third, and the binders do not burn to give energy.  In inferior briquettes, the binder might even have a foul scent when burnt.  There are several other brands of pure lump charcoal (Ozark Oak comes to mind), but Royal Oak is distributed by Wal-Mart and is commonly available.

Another advantage in pure lump charcoal is that, when your cooking is done, you can put it out and it will not fall apart as briquettes do.  Other than the smoker, I also use a Weber “kettle” style of grill for hamburgers, steaks, grilled vegetables, and other material that does better with fast, as opposed to slow, cooking.  My model allows me to control the air flow from both the top and the bottom, so I have complete control of the cooking environment.  Lump charcoal is perfect there, since it throws almost no ash (I use my Weber A LOT, and have to clean ash only twice a year at most).  When I get finished cooking, all that I have to do is close off the bottom damper and the top flue, and the fire dies out from lack of oxygen.  Briquettes would disintegrate into ashes in this environment, but pure lump charcoal just keeps it form and goes out in an orderly manner.

By the way, the lump charcoal is easy to light.  I just pile it onto the charcoal area of the Weber and then use a propane torch to get it going.  Depending on the wind, it only takes about 60 seconds to get it started and then 20 minutes for it to burn down for cooking.  There is no solvent scent, and you can use the propane torch for briquettes as well.

When igniting briquettes, you might notice some bright “fizzes” burning, regardless of the way that you ignite it.  That is because most commercial briquettes contain a little sodium or potassium nitrate (both are potent oxidizing agents) to make up for the 35% filler so that they will ignite.

The next day was Youngest Son’s day to cook.  He chose to use ingredients that I had (except that my olive oil was old and rancid, so we got some fresh).   The recipe, and its variations in parentheses, are as follows.

4 fluid ounces Dijon mustard (We used French’s Spicy, and it was good)

3 fluid ounces milk

7 ounces pecans, very finely chopped (We used pecans from Eldest Son’s back yard, and cracked them and picked them out whilst watching TeeVee)

6 fish fillets  (We used wild caught catfish from my freezer.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the milk and mustard together and add the salt and pepper.  Take a sheet of waxed paper and pour the pecans on it and spread them out some.  Dip the fish in the mustard/milk mixture and shake off any excess.  Roll the fish in the pecans and place on a lightly oiled baking pan.

Cook in a preheated 450 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

We did all of this, but it would not cook.  It needs more like 30 to 45 minutes in the oven, but when it was done, it was really good.  We both agreed that he should have put more salt on the fish before  

He also cooked a wonderful rice pilaf using 1/2 fluid ounce butter

1/2 fluid ounce olive oil

1 1/2 ounce onion, finely diced

1 bay leaf

1/2 pound long grain rice

1 pint (U.S) chicken stock

Salt to taste

Saute the onion and bay leaf in the butter and olive oil until tender but not browned.  Add the rice to coat and stir.  Do not brown.  In the meantime, bring the stock to the boil.  Cover tightly and place in preheated 350 degree oven until the rice is just done, about 18 to 20 minutes.  Fluff the rice and remove the bay leaf.

This pilaf had to stand for longer than we expected because of the greater cooking time for the fish, but it was still perfect and a great side for the fish.  He also made a beurre blanc sauce with lemon juice for the fish.  It was a great meal.

The rest of the time we had leftover chicken or less special food, but we did not ever go hungry.  After he left yesterday morning, I removed what was left of the meat on the chicken, slicing the white meat and freezing it for sandwiches and taking the small bits and made chicken salad, which I ate for dinner.  I then boilt down the carcass for stock for the freezer and took the remains to my neighbor whose dog loves such things.  With all of the boiling, the leg bones were soft enough not to be a splinter hazard.

Well, now you know what I had for dinner.  What about you?  By the way, Pique the Geek will return tomorrow night at 9 PM eastern, with the third of three installments on nuclear fusion.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Daily Kos