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Frank’s Old-Style N’Awlins Croaker Party

If you grew up in New Orleans and you ate fish as a kid, you’ve eaten croakers! They’re those little, sweet-meat, bottom fish we use to catch by the hampers full, hurried home with, scaled and gutted, and pan-fried whole for the fish frys we invited the whole neighborhood to. Well, for a while, they had disappeared! But now they’re coming back!! And when you catch your next mess of them, I recommend you fix them this way. . . for old time’s sake!

Ingredients

6 cups Frank Davis Gourmet Fish Fry or comparable brand
12 whole croakers, scaled, gutted, and de-boned
4 cups peanut or corn oil for frying
Fresh lemon, catsup, or hot sauce for garnishing
French fried potatoes or potato salad

Instructions

Then while the pan is coming to heat, begin "scoring" the fillets. To accomplish this you’ll need a very sharp knife. What you want to do is "slice" each side of the fish diagonally about four to six times (down to the backbone)) so that you end up with several crosshatched, diamond-shaped cuts on each side of the croaker. When they’ve all been cut, return each fish to a pan of ice cold water to await cooking.

Now when you’re ready to eat and the oil has reached the proper temperature, take the croakers directly from the water and prepare them for frying. Of course, you probably have been told dozens of ways you can do this, but the proper way is to take the wet fish (remember, to keep them ultra-fresh they also need to be stored in the refrigerator in a pan of cold water), lightly shake off the excess water, and meticulously dredge them in a pan of the fish fry, being careful to thoroughly coat them all over, inside the body cavity, and into the crosshatch cuts along the sides..

Afterwards, immediately place the fish—so that they’re not touching!—on a sheet of waxed paper and allow them to "rest" on the paper for at least two to three minutes so that (1) the ingredients in the fish fry adhere to the fillets and (2) so that the coating doesn’t fall off in the hot oil.

When you’re ready to fry, ease the croakers into the pan one at a time, but don’t overcrowd them—give them room to fry. At the correct temperature, if the fish are fried for about 3 minutes on each side they will come out perfect every time, tender-flaky on the inside yet with the most incredible crispiness on the outside. They will also be a luscious shade of golden-brown and will be almost totally greaseless.

When they’re done frying, all that’s left is to place them on a couple of layers of absorbent paper towels (or on a wire rack) to drain. Oh—and there’s no disputing the point: for fried fish to be truly gourmet, especially fish done this ol’ N’Awlins way, they should be eaten the moment they come out of the fry pan. So be sure to tell your invited dinner guests to be standing close by with plate in hand once the frying starts. You won’t believe the difference it’ll make!

So what do you serve with pan-fried croakers? Traditionally, if you remember, Momma used to serve hot buttered grits. But some folks like to reserve grits for breakfast eggs and grillades. So you can be just as authentic if you serve a creamy baked potato, buttery mashed potatoes, maybe a platter of homemade fries, or even a cold potato salad! But you don’t want to have too much on the side—you gotta save extra room for extra croakers!

Without a doubt the little fish are mouthwatering all by themselves, but they take on a little extra robustness and zip when drizzled with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and dabbed with a splash or two of Tabasco Sauce.

Chef's Hints

1.) After the croakers are scaled and gutted, be sure to wash away the small trace of blood that will remain along the backbone inside the belly cavity. It will impart a strong taste if not removed.

2.) To "de-bone" pan fish, you take a sharp knife, cut parallel along both sides of the dorsal fins and on both sides of the anal fin, and pull out the pin bones from both locations with a pair of pliers. This leaves only the few belly bones and the continuous backbone to worry with.

3.) Don’t let the coated fish set and rest for more than 5 minutes or the coating will lose its crunchiness and become hardened. Of course, if you don’t allow the coating to "rest" on the fish for at least two minutes it won’t stick to the skin and will float away in the oil.

4.) For a spicier fish fry coating, mix equal parts of my fish fry and my chicken fry together then dredge the croakers in the coating mixture. This is the Cajun, down-on-the-bayou, fiery version of a fish fry!

5.) Instead of using paper towels, it’s perfectly okay to drain fried croakers on a couple of Kraft bags (those are the paper bags you get from the grocery store).

6.) Just for the record, you should not use an egg wash with my fish fry. It will only thicken the corn mixture and make it tough. You should also not marinate the fish in mustard or vinegar or beer—it destroys the delicate sweetness of the pan fish.

7.) You can get both my premixed fish fry and chicken fry either at your favorite neighborhood grocery or online at my very own Web site, www.frankdavis.com.

8.) It’s perfectly acceptable to fry the croakers in Canola oil, but I prefer the nuttiness of peanut or corn oil on these baby fish. If you need more information about pan-frying, either e-mail me or call me at 504-529-6441.