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Catfish or Rock Fish Stew
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Rockfish or Catfish Stew

Here’s a rustic recipe that captures the spirit of “use what you catch”
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: American southern
Author: Chloe Tuttle

Equipment

  • 1 large stew pot

Ingredients

  • 1 qt water
  • 3 bunches green onions chopped, reserve 1 cup
  • 2 sweet onions diced
  • 4 small Thai hot, red peppers, or other small hot peppers crushed
  • 1 lb. bacon fried and crumbled, reserved
  • 1/2 lb. fat back cut into cubes and fried
  • 5 baking potatoes peeled and diced
  • 5 cups catfish cut into bite-size pieces, about 3 lbs.
  • 10 boiled eggs peeled and diced
  • salt and pepper to taste

Cornmeal Dumplings

  • 1 1/2 cup white corn meal non-self-rising
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons flour All Purpose
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • dash salt
  • warm water enough to make a stiff paste

Instructions

  • Put water, 2 cups of the chopped, green onions, sliced onions, red peppers, bacon drippings, fatback and drippings into a large stew pot. Cook uncovered over medium heat until onions dissolve, about 30 minutes.
  • Add baking potatoes to the pot. Make a layer of catfish on top of the potatoes. Add dumplings (recipe below) on top of the catfish. Do not stir. You can shake the pot.
  • When pot contents are done, remove from heat. Combine eggs, reserved bacon, reserved cup of green onion tops, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over contents of pot and cover pot. Let stand 30 minutes. When serving, gently spoon out in sections because the stew will be in layers.

Cornmeal Dumplings

  • Stir together corn meal, flour, sugar and salt. Slowly add enough warm water until you can form small balls about the size of a walnut. Dough will be a very stiff paste. Flatten dumplings to be the size of a fifty-cent piece.
  • Place dumplings on top of potatoes and catfish. Cover and simmer but do NOT stir. Keep enough water in pot to avoid sticking and shake pot occasionally.

Notes

Note: fatback is the same as salt pork, sometimes referred to as “streak of lean, streak of fat“. This is readily available in any grocery store south of that famed Mason-Dixon Line. (South of Virginia, and more realistically, south of Richmond)  If unavailable, very thick sliced bacon with skin may be substituted.
Carolyn said that cooking is part art. The amount of water to add to the pot and the dumplings is a matter of judgment. Make sure the water does not boil out because the stew will burn.  Also, gently shake the pot from time to time to make sure it is not sticking. But do not stir!