Here’s A Delicious “Tomato Gravy Catfish With Bacon!”
Who’s hungry? If not, you will be after I share this terrific catfish dish – thanks to a brilliant Chef from my home town of Seattle and a guy named “Mr. Joe”!
And who is “Mr. Joe?” Well, Chef Tom explains in his cookbook;
“Mr. Joe was our next-door neighbor for 18 years in Newark Delaware, where I grew up. No calling adults by their first names in those days – it was MR. Joe and MRS. Alice.”
You see, every week Mr. Joe would make this dish and Chef Douglas loved it!
Douglas never forgot that recipe, and when he asked his parent for it they admitted they had no idea – it was something Mr. Joe came up with – so the parents got Mr. Joe to write it down for Chef Tom and he has it in his cookbook as an homage!
This is a delicious and for me unusual way to serve fish – but since I love the sweetness of that fish, let’s make it in honor of Mr. Joe!
For The Tomato Gravy:
8 slices bacon
2/3 cup chopped onion
-1/2 cups canned diced tomato
1 cup canned tomato sauce
Chef Tom notes that while he always uses fresh tomatoes at his restaurant, Mr. Joe did NOT – so he is honoring the original recipe by using canned!
Tabasco sauce to taste
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
salt and pepper to taste
The first thing to do is to fry the bacon until crispy then set aside for later…and as an added treat, a little video of it bubbling away on the stove…here’s a little “bacon frying music” for you…
Now, cook the onions in 2 tbl of the bacon grease for about two minutes then add the tomatoes.
Cook for ten minutes, then puree in a food processor….I did it briefly to keep a chunkier consistency which I like…
Return the gravy to the pan and add your tabasco and all seasonings. Simmer for five minutes, then add the corn starch and it will make the “gravy”…
Now that your gravy is done, time to fry some food – but let’s not forget to make Tom’s special spice rub first!
For The Spice Rub:
Both the catfish and the artichokes can use the same spicy mixture.
2 tbl. paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
I dredged my artichokes first – I used cooked the quarter chunks and they worked just fine…
They took less than ten minutes and then I set them aside with the bacon and the last part of the process was frying up the catfish!
1-1/2 pound catfish fillets, cut into portions
3 tbl peanut oil for pan frying the fish
4 lemon wedges
Oh, and they want you to use fresh parsley so here I am with mine:
Frying fish doesn’t take long at all.
Heat your peanut oil in a frying pan and fry your catfish, about 4 minutes per side.
While they are cooking, reheat your bacon briefly in the oven so it’s nice and warm – you can put your artichokes in as well…then it’s time to plate the dish!
Here’s the process:
As you saw in the video, you ladle the gravy onto a plate, put a catfish portion over the sauce and lay two strips of bacon over the top!
Garnish your plate with parsley, lemon wedges and the fried artichokes and your “tomato gravy catfish” is ready to enjoy!
What a delicious bite of food!
Bravo to Chef Tom Douglas – he has a great line of canned spice rubs for salmon, steak, chicken and vegetables too…they are terrific!
I love using regular products in new ways…
Yes, this was a single strip of beef I needed for one of my “52 In 22” cooking challenges in 2022 – I love cooking unique recipes like this one…
It was “gingered beef with asparagus and leek” and it was incredible thanks to Chef Ming Tsai’s recipe!
You can see how easy and delicious it is by clicking on my story here:
Back to fish, I love this recipe with the unique title:
This is “fish in crazy water!” What makes it crazy? Click here to find out!
I recently had a spirited conversation with some fellow foodies about whether you can replicate a great restaurant dish at home – like Rao’s legendary Meatballs!
This was the juiciest, most flavorful Meatball of my life – click here for the recipe I made at home – and the secret ingredient that I never knew about:
Speaking of Italian food, I have also cooked a traditional Italian “Sunday Gravy”, with an interesting assist from Actor / Cookbook Author / Food Travel Host Stanley Tucci:
I learned a fascinating bit of information about how you are supposed to serve this dish, and you can see how I did by clicking on my story here:
I store all of these recipes on my food website “Bite! Eat! Repeat!” – it’s your site for all things food – if you like what you see, please click on my link and follow this blog as well!
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Categories: Bacon, Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Chef memoirs, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Fine Dining, Food, Recipes, Restaurants, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
I don’t own that cookbook, but I’ve always loved that cover photo! The dish looks great.
It was delicious and I agree, that is an iconic pic for sure!
I wonder if Mr. Joe was Cajun. It sounds like a delicious way to prepare catfish.
It sure sounds like that was his past…I just love that Chef went back to something he remembered form his childhood…it was pretty terrific and I love Catfish…in fact, about to cook with it and will be sharing in the next few days!
How wonderful that the recipe was not only written down but featured in a cookbook. So many disappeared.
this sounds delicious, glad he got the recipe, and tomato gravy is new to me –
I have never eaten Catfish, John, and I don’t even know if it is sold here. But I would definitely be happy to try it, especially with artichokes!
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete, it’s a slightly sweeter, meaty fish…it’s really good breaded and fried over here, a real southern treat!
This really sounds delicious especially as there is Cayenne and Paprika to add a little umph to the dish …Tomato gravy isn’t something I make but will definitely give this a try as catfish is plentiful here :)Thanks for sharing the recipe , John 🙂
Thanks for the comment Carol!
Looks very tasty!