1 pound of catfish filets

1 1/2 cups rice, preferably black “Forbidden” rice, cooked

1 cup green lentils de puy, or French green lentils

1 large onion, thinly sliced into rings

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 T. ground coriander

1 T. ground ginger

1 T. turmeric

1 T. salt

1 t. chili powder

1 chili pepper, sliced

1 t. whole cumin seed

1 T. minced garlic

white wine vinegar or other vinegar of choice

Canola oil

Salt & pepper

Salsa of choice (I just chopped tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, and added a little lemon juice and salt)

First prepare the rice and lentils:

Cook rice according to directions on package or in rice cooker.

In the meantime, sort through lentils, rinse, then cover with water and bring to boil.  Lower heat to medium-low and cover.  Cook for 20-25 minutes, then drain.

For the fish:

Salt and pepper the catfish filets.  Squeeze juice of half a lemon into the coriander, ginger, turmeric, chili powder, and 1 t. salt to make a paste and rub the paste into the filets.  Bake in pyrex baking dish at 400 for 10-12 minutes.  They can also be pan fried in canola oil.

For the onions:

Put a tablespoon or two of canola oil into a pan and heat it.  After it heats, add the cumin seeds, some sliced chile pepper and minced garlic and sautee quickly until the fragrances release — the cumin seeds release fragrance quickly, maybe after half a minute.  Saute onions in the oil until they start to brown.  (I was too lazy to carmelize them but I added some water and cooked them until the water evaporated so they were soft.)  Add the onions to the rice and toss with some vinegar (I used white wine vinegar but red, sherry, or cider would probably all be fine) salt, and lemon juice, to taste.

Mix the lentils and rice together, with a little vinegar and oil to taste.  Serve fish on top of a bed of the rice-lentil mixture.  Top with salsa.

Posted by: constancecg

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 8:47 pm and is filed under entrees.

Tags: fish