Deep-Fried Catfish

Like most Southerners, I adore catfish. I’m not certain that my mother ever prepared catfish at home, however. She was too aristocratic for that. Red snapper, yes; but catfish was too common, something to be enjoyed on Sunday outings.

Eating deep-fried catfish was a ritual and the menu was always the same: the cornmeal-coated catfish with its golden-brown crusty exterior and moist white inner flesh; deep-fried hush puppies; deep-fried potatoes; and coleslaw. And ketchup. Deep-fried