Catfish Tostada

So for the next week or so i am house/dog sitting for my parents in mono. My mom has an amazing kitchen with lots of nice gadgets along with my dream item - a gas stove. There isn't too much to do on ten acres by yourself, well except cook.

I was looking through some of my mom's Moosewood cookbooks, and saw quite a few recipes that interested me, but this one in particular caught my eye - Fish Tostadas. The recipe itself was pretty simple - as most tostadas are, and i thought i would use catfish, which is quite a tasty fish that doesn't really get used that often. In the supermarket fish section you often see it pre-seasoned either cajun or lemon pepper - i've never tried them, but heard the cajun is good.

I ended up buying a piece of unseasoned catfish which i first rubbed on both sides with a clove of cut garlic. I've used this technique before for bread, but never for fish. I then rubbed the fish with a mixture of ground corriander, cumin and salt and pepper. Once i put it on the foil (no need to ruin any of my mother's baking sheets) the recipe called for you to squeeze half a lemon over the fish, and then broil it, a few inches from the top for 9 to 12 minutes.

While the fish was cooking, i made a salsa. They had a number of salsa recipes mentioned in the cookbook, but i didn't quite have the ingredients for any particular one, so i made my own. Initially i was going to to a tomato based one (as you can see from the pictures) but changed my mind and did a black bean and mango salsa with red onions, coriander, red peppers and jalapenos. I do enjoy certain fruits with fish and this seemed like an opportunity to do one.

Once the fish was finished i heated a corn tortilla in oil, drained it and topped it with arugula, the fish and finally the black bean mango salsa. Voila Catfish Tostadas

Above:

The finished tostada

Some of the ingredients

The fish ready for the rub

The fish ready for the oven

Assembling the tostada