This recipe is very delicious and is the invention to make an alternative to turkey or chicken for the holidays. Simple and fast to prepare, festive and colorful , but mainly this dish is healthy and will vanish very fast from the plates.
For the recipe you can use whole catfish and catfish fillets. You can use any other fish like tilapia or flounder steaks, whole carp etc. This recipe is very low on cholesterol.
1 Catfish (4 lb.) cleaned, or catfish fillets (8)
¼ stick of sweet unsalted butter melted
½ onion chopped
1 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. black pepper
1 cup of crab meat (imitated or real crab meat)
½ cup of shrimps (optional)
3 tsp. salt
1 lemon
Step 1. Clean the catfish (if you are using whole fish). Wash in hot water and rub very well under the hot water to clean the skin better. (Or skin the fish, if you prefer)
Step 2. Prepare the stuffing: finely chop the pepper and onion, add the cream cheese and mix very well. Cook the crab meat by boiling it in salt water for 3 minutes. Cool the crab meat and shrimps, then drain and chop it. Add crab meat and shrimps to the rest of the stuffing, season and mix very well.
Step 3. Stuff the cleaned and seasoned fish. (Season the fish by rubbing into the skin 1 tsp. of cumin,1 tsp. pepper and 2 tsp. of salt). Sew the fish up and put on a greased baking dish.
Step 4. Preheat the stove at 350F. Bake the fish for 25 min, pouring the melted butter on it after 10 min of baking and squeezing in half of the lemon onto it 20 minutes after the baking was started.
If you are using fish fillets just put the stuffing between the fillets and bake the fillets for 20 minutes pouring the melted butter and lemon juice 10 and 15 minutes after the baking started accordingly.
After the fish is ready let it sit in an oven fir the next 5 minutes. Put on a large plate, and take the threads before serving.
