Not Going to Feel Like the First Time
I’m doing another radio/video cooking thing today, this time I’m making Vietnamese catfish with caramel sauce, probably my all-time favorite food. The recipe is very simple, so I’ll be explaining the ingredients again, just like with the pad thai. There aren’t too many exotic ingredients, just the fish and caramel sauces. I’ll also be talking about the catfish a bit, especially since many people still think of it as a dirty fish that tastes gamey.
I’ve tasted wild catfish since my father’s parents used to stock their very small pond with them and my grandfather and I used to catch them. I think we threw them back most of the time, but I do remember eating them once. Gamey. Farm-raised catfish, the only type I’ve ever seen in the stores, are universally mild and tender, especially when braised, which is essentially the technique with this recipe. Catfish are bottom feeders when the food is only available at the bottom of the water, but if you feed them from the top, then they eat at the surface, and they stay very mild.
My first time doing this, on the video I’m re-explaining all the ingredients as they were going into the wok when I had just talked about each of them on the counter. The problem was the sequence they shot the segements. First they recorded me cooking the dish, so I explained all the ingredients, then they recorded me explaining the ingredients before cooking them. When they edited it, of course they switched the segments. I’ll try not to make the same mistake again. This time I’ll focus on talking about the cooking technique when I’m cooking it, and try to save all my ingredient discussion for the pre-cooking segment when I point out the ingredients on the counter. And then I’m making it again for the crowd.
The radio broadcast is from 5-6p on 98.3 The Coast in St. Joseph, Mich., and the video will be posted on their Cooking with the Diva page by Thursday I think. I’ll post it on my page as well.
Bye now, I’m going to have some fun!
