Cajun-ish style Catfish

This is the first and only real meal Amar and I have made and eaten together since we moved into our new apartment last month...which is a little pathetic really. It's just so easy to get lazy and order take-out or go out to eat in this neighborhood now that I have so many delicious options right at my fingertips.

It was a very tasty and colorful meal...the stir-fried green beans and asparagus we just sauteed, and the mashed sweet potatoes were also pretty straight forward. The fish recipe came from Foodnetwork.com, courtesy of Emeril. For the sauteed vegetables, i first cooked 3 cloves of thinly sliced garlic in olive oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes, then i added the string beans and a pinch of water and cooked it over medium heat for about 7-8 minutes, with a cover over the skillet. Then I threw in the asparagus last and cooked everything for another 5-7 minutes, because those cook through pretty quickly. If the vegetables start to look a little dry, add some more olive oil.

For the sweet mashed potatoes, peel and dice the sweet potatoes into one inch pieces, boil starting in cold water for about 15 minutes, mash together with a few splashes of milk and a tablespoon of better...more milk if you like it creamier. Add lots of brown sugar, otherwise it'll taste slightly bitter.

Onto the fish. This was the first time i used a broiler to cook anything and the fish came out pretty well. Broiling the fish gave it that blackened char around the edges, but still retained the juiciness of the fish.

Ingredients:
2 large filets of catfish
3 pinches of salt
2 cloves of garlic, minced
generous amount of olive oil
1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
1 tablespoons of paprika
1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon of black pepper
1/2 tablespoon of dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon of dried thyme

Directions:
mix all of the seasonings
Season the catfish with salt and seasonings on both sides
combine the olive oil, fresh thyme and garlic, spread over the catfish filets
drizzle the lemon juice over the filets
add the bread crumbs to the top of the filets
add some more olive oil over the bread crumbs
put the fish in the broiler for about 12-15 minutes (the directions said to flip the catfish, but that made the bread crumbs all soggy...so i wouldn't advise doing that)