Smoked Catfish

table full of Catfish

Come November 2, 2008 it was time to try smoking some catfish. We pulled out several nice size fish from the Aquaponics system.

3lb catfish

The cook wanted to put his new smoker to the test on some home Aquaponics grown catfish. We got those fish in March and we had already grown out many to a nice big size, granted, we got the catfish as rather advanced fingerlings but for 8 months in the system, that’s doing better than most tilapia can even with heat.

marinade fish

The cook did a marinade for the fish while waiting for the smoker to be ready.

smoker

That little smoker worked fine but didn’t last too long before rusting out.

smoked catfish

Those fish looked beautiful smoked but I think they got a little dried out for my taste. The leftovers were nice made into smoked catfish cakes though and we also did a smoked catfish dip that I rather like and would probably use it as a tuna substitute in sandwiches myself.

Catfish cakes

I think we will be pulling some smoked fish out of the freezer and making some smoked fish dip for the workshop this weekend.

When planning aquaponics it might be hard for some people to really get into the eating the fish part while others love fish.  I grew up not liking it so much and it has been a step for me to learn that there are ways I like fish.

Early on the smoked fish and smoked catfish cakes and smoked catfish dip were my favorites.

Now I’ve developed some new favorites but you will have to tune in regularly to learn more.

I promise I’m trying to get the cook to start writing a cooking and recipe blog section for my site but we might have to just settle for my descriptions and pictures of what he creates.