Honest Abe Living Magazine features Cooking with Lodge Cast Iron recipes in each issue along with photos of log cabins, log homes and timber frame homes.
Ingredients
1 sleeve premium saltine crackers
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup finely diced onion
1/4 cup finely diced yellow pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onion
8 fried catfish fillets
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Salts & freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
Come Back Sauce (see recipe)
1. Place the crackers in a food processor and grind to crumbs; pour crumbs into a shallow bowl.
2. Melt the butter in a medium cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, and green onions; cook, stirring often, until tender.
3. Place the catfish fillets in a medium bowl and use your fingers or the back of a fork to mash them into bits. Add the beaten eggs, Tabasco, and Worcestershire; season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the onion mixture and stir well. Pat the catfish mixture into 8 cakes about 2 1/2 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches. Gently dredge the cakes in the cracker crumbs, coating well on both sides.
4. Heat a 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Gently place the catfish cakes in the hot skillet and cook, in batches, until golden brown on both sides. Drain on a paper bag and serve with Come Back Sauce.
Serves 4; makes 8 (2 1/2 inch) cakes.
Come Back Sauce
This sauce originated at the Mayflower Cafe in Jackson, Miss., where it was the house salad dressing. It got its name because diners kept “coming back” for it.
Makes about 1 1/4 cups
1 tablespoon grated onion (using the large holes of a box grater)
1 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon prepared chilli sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and stir well. If the sauce is too thick to drizzle, add 1 tablespoon water to thin. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Elizabeth Heiskell, lead culinary instructor at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi, contributed this recipe on behalf of her good friend Nan. “Only she could turn leftover catfish into pure genius,” says Elizabeth.
We hope you enjoy this recipe from the new Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook: A Treasury of Timeless Delicious Recipes. The cookbook can be ordered from the Lodge web site or from Amazon. For more information about Lodge and their cast iron cookware, visit www.lodgemfg.com.
