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Catfish or Alligator Nuggets
Clean the alligator. This
presumes a lot of prior activity on your part. You have
to find the 'gator, explain his position in the food chain
to him, and haul his carcass back to camp. Works up an
appetite.
Most people only use the tail, but
the other meat is good, too. The best tail meat will come
from a 4 - 5 foot gator. A 3-footer wouldn't be big enough
to feed the camp, 6-10 footers tend to put up a bit of
a fight, and over 10 foot he's probably tough and you'll
want to grind the meat up.
 Skin
and filet your catfish, setting
aside the choice pieces for yourself. This is called "Chef's
Priviledge" - if you're the one having to slave
over the hot fire, you get to eat the best cuts. (Some
people really favor the cheek meat from the catfish.)
Once again you will have worked up
quite an appetite by having racked your line,
caught bait, baited hooks, ran the line across the river
and anchored it, then returned later to pull in the line
with your catch. From here on out
the recipe is the same for catfish or gator:
1. Chop the meat into nuggets -
about 2 inches square
2. Make marinade for soaking -
if you are cooking a large amount you can just add to the
liquids as you soak more batches.
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Marinade
In a large bowl or pot (big enough to soak a good portion
of meat in) mix together: |
1 beer
1-2 cups of milk
Louisianna Hot Sauce - amount
will vary depending on how much beer has found
it's way into the cook. As the evening goes on
you may need to label trays of nuggets as "gettin'
warm-ish", "hot", "damn hot" and "mmffffpp!" Salt
and Pepper
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Put the nuggets in the liquid and
set in the refrigerator or ice chest to soak for at least
1/4 hour.
3. Heat
deep pan of oil
4. Mix breading
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Breading
Put the ingredients
in a large brown paper or heavy plastic bag.
Close the top of the bag and shake to mix ingredients. |
Flour - maybe
a cup of flour and 1/2 that of corn meal,
depending on how much meat you have to coat.
You may have to just add to the bag every
few batches.
Corn
Meal
Seasoning -
I like to add "Everglade Seasoning" here,
but season it to your taste. It won't take
a lot...remember that Louisanna Hot Sauce?
Salt and Pepper
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Take nuggets from the marinade and
drop them, a handfull at a time, into the bag and shake
to coat them thouroughly.
5. Drop coated nuggets into very
hot oil. Cook to a golden brown - should only
take a minute - then remove them from the oil and drain
on newspapers or paper towels.
Yumm! Put some baked potatoes in the
coals of the fire to go along with the nuggets or fry up
some hushpuppies. You are ready to eat!
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