Catfish - And you thought it is plain......

Guess what?  This fish is one of the most versatile local fish that I have found.  The options of what to do with it is limited by your imagination!  First things first, select a good quality fish and this means that you should know the origins of your fish - the water quality, the feed, the time to market.  The water quality should be good, preferably a pond with continuous flow of fresh water coming in.  The feed should not consist of any elements of waste such as waste products from chicken and carcasses of dead animals. Don't be shy about asking the seller.

For the general consumer, this may be difficult unless you know your fish seller so here are some tips:

1. If it has a strong smell, run!!!!!
2. If possible, buy them live.  However live doesn't mean that it is good.  Check out if there is a lot of "slime" around it.  Less is better.
3. Check the underbelly.  It should be white in color - not slightly yellow.
4. The flesh of the fish must be firm.  If it is mushy, then it is not fresh.
5. If the color of the flesh has a yellow tint to it, it has either been stored incorrectly or not fresh.
6. The fat should also be white or the color of milk.

Cleaning this fish can be quite a challenge as it is often cleaned when it is live.  Some suggestions to assist you in handling the fish are:

1. Hold the fish as in the picture above.  Be careful of the side stingers.
2. Place it in the freezer.
3. Put it in some salt.

The above two will put the fish in a comatose state for ease of handling.  If cleaned properly, the fish should not be slippery or slimy to handle.  Once cleaned, if you are not going to cook it right away but want to store it for later, it should be frozen immediately.  Do not store it in its raw state in a chiller for more than a day.  This is one fish that retaining freshness is supreme.

The catfish can :

1. be cooked from its cleaned, raw state
2. be smoked, either salted or marinated previously
3. be dried, either salted or unsalted. or marinated

The combinations that I have found to work out well for marinades are (1) salt and lemon grass (serai), (2) kaffir lime leaves (daun limau perut), salt and calamansi and (3) lemon basil (kemangi) and salt.  Locally, the popular ways of preparing smoked catfish is by cooking it with coconut milk and chillies or by frying it.  It is then eaten with rice.  The same applies for dried catfish.

The most often ways of preparing raw, whole catfish are masak lemak cili padi, asam pedas, cooked over charcoal and deep fried.  All these options tend to limit the accompaniment - rice.  However, if you get good quality fresh catfish which is more than 600g, you can fillet it and produce a nice piece of fillet which you can then cook in many other ways.  I have got feedback from people who have tried my filleted catfish that when they had cooked it and served it to other people, they couldn't guess what fish it was.  Catfish (keli) was definitely one of their guesses!  You can:

• marinate it with a various ways using many combinations of herbs and grill it,
• you can cut it into bite pieces and create fish nuggets, you can dip them in batter and deep fry,
• or you can even just bake it in the oven. 

This opens up options of its accompaniments:

• you can eat it with salads for a light, fresh healthy meal,
• with potatoes - french fries, mash potatoes, baked potatoes
• or even on its own.

So, try it out and use your imagination :).