I love capers, especially when paired with butter, lemon, and a fresh piece of fish. This feels like a quintessentially French recipe to me, especially since I use the exact same sauce for my scallop dish. Trout Meunière is found on every classic New Orleans dinner menu that I saw, so I figured it was fair game. I couldn’t find trout, so I figured catfish was still a river fish and is used in the cuisine of the area. It turned out well.

Meunière means “miller’s wife” and this refers to the fact that the fish filet is dredged in flour before cooking. I recommend using a cast iron skillet to fry the fish, especially if you have a very large fillet like my catfish. My heavy bottomed steel did not brown as nicely as the cast iron, as you can tell in the first filet (on the right side).

Catfish Meunière with Capers

3 12 ounce catfish filets, or 4-6 trout fillets
salt and pepper
4 tbsp ghee
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped parsley
8 tbsp butter
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup capers, drained

1. Pat the fish dry with paper towels and season on both sides. Dredge in flour and shake off any excess.
2. Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a cast iron skillet. If your skillet is not large enough, you may need to cut the fillets in half as I did.
3. Once the pan is really hot and the ghee is completely melted and started to bubble a bit, place the floured filet in and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked through. If your filet is rather fat, peel up a filament of flesh and check to see if the interior is opaque and cooked through.
4. I warmed my platter in the oven while the fish were cooling. Place cooked fish on warmed platter and cover with aluminum foil. Keep in oven with the pilot light on.
5. Repeat for remainder of fish.
6. Clean out the skillet. Add the butter and cook until it begins to brown and bubble.
7. remove from heat. Mix in the remaining ingredients, season to taste. Adjust ingredients if necessary. Pour over fish and serve immediately.
8. Feel free to serve with lemon for garnish.

Total time: 1 hour