Monday, March 7, 2011

Catfish Chowder, Ala the Goodwife..........

Every spring and summer our clan heads to the lake to fish.  What do we fish for?  Catfish of course!  Channel cats or mud cats, we don't care, we love 'em all.  Actually I prefer the taste of mud cat, or maybe you call them yellow bellies?  Anywho, there is no size limit on mud cats because folks usually consider them a pest fish, like bluegill (which we enjoy as well). 

As I was makin' my Aldi list on Sunday I found three gallon bags full of itty bitty mud cats.  I was wondering what I could do with them and thought of clam chowder.  I have a recipe for cannin' New England style clam chowder and thought I could probably whip somethin' up, so I got started!

First I put my witty bitty frozen mud cats in my pressure pan and seasoned them up good.....


Fish takes no time to cook in a pressure cooker.  Once you get the steam up and put the jiggler on, it only takes about 10 minutes or less, so while that was cookin' I got the rest of my stuff ready to go!

1/2 lb of bacon..........


2 cups diced onions.........


About 4 quarts or so of peeled 'taters.......


Saute the bacon until it's slightly brown, then add in the onions and saute.......


Dump your 'taters in there and add some seasonings, I used dill, salt, pepper, and some celery seed....


Now while your bacon was cooking and your onions were sauteing you should have been boning that catfish.  Here's a little secret........when you pressure cook catfish, the bones do the same thing salmon bones do.  Yup, they get "soft" so you don't have to pick through it too much.  Pick out most of the bones but if you miss some it's ok because you can eat them. 

Cooked catfish..........

After you get all your catfish mushed up and the bones out, you add that to your pot of bacon, 'taters, and onions.  Then you strain the broth to get out any loose bones and add the broth to your pot along with some water if need be.  How much?  Heck I don't know, this is the Goodwife you are talkin' to....you just add enough!  ;0)  No really, you add enough to make a soup, as you shouldn't can really thick stew.  It should be a nice consistency, not too watery and not super thick either. 

You also musn't can this in anything bigger than a pint.  I used half-pints for single servings and then did some in pints for more than one.

 Once it's in the canners..........


You process it for an hour and 40 minutes at 11 lbs pressure and whalllaaaa.....


You've got Goodwife Farm's Catfish Chowder!

To serve you dump your chowder in a pan, add in some milk and some butter and heat through, but don't boil.

Then you eat it up!


Quite yummy with some homemade bread and butter and a glass of tea!



God Bless...................

12 comments:

  1. You lost me at catfish, but the rest of it looked really good. I'm so impressed!

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  2. That looks really good. I've got a ton of salmon in the freezer as my dh goes fishing w/ a friend who is a charter boat captain. Makes me think I should turn some of it into salmon chowder. :) Holly

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  3. Wow. That looks delicious! I love fishin' for anything, but 'round here, the channel cats get HUGE. (Like, 3 feet long and a bizillion pounds HUGE) I've got some good catfish stories!

    Maybe this year, I'll get myself a cat or two and ask Pap and see if we can cook up a batch!

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  4. Thanks all!

    @Miz, come on girl, catfish is good stuff! hehe

    @Holly, yes you should! Get in that kitchen and make up some salmon chowder! :0D

    @Autumn, yes we get huge channel cat here too, but since we don't have a boat mostly we catch channel cats that are at around 3-6 lbs or else little mud cats and I won't say no to any kind of catfish! ;0)

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  5. Oh, how I love Catfish! Like you it don't matter what kind. That chowder looks awesome. Good job!!

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  6. I'd try it, lol. Looks & sounds good. Catfish is not my favorite but the boys like it. Now Salmon is my favorite :)

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  7. Thanks Jennifer! You should try to whip some up with some salmon. It's really yummy and good!

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  8. unfortunately I think I'm out here... I don't like fish...

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  9. That would be great only catfish doesn't like The Husband, despite The Husband likin' catfish!

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  10. I love this idea of canning up some good soup for busy afternoons. I end up doing most of my canning from June-October too, but there really isn't any good reason to stop canning after that!

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  11. Hey Nicole, sorry to hear you don't like fish, you could add extra bacon and make it bacon chowder.......lol

    @MilkMaid.........hmm, I've never heard of this, but it does sound rather unfortunate! HA!

    @Lara.......I'm a can-o-holic! I love it and am going to be canning up some beans tomorrow, and possibly some beef stew today.

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