Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Catfish along with all the Catfish containing recipes presented on this site, with 16 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Catfish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Catfish as a major wild food ingredient.



Catfish are fish species from the order Siluriformes, representing a diverse group of ray-fined fish native to Eurasia, Africa and the Americas. They are named after their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers.

Catfish do not have scales and they can be either naked or armour plated. However, despite their common name, not all catfish have prominent barbels; members of the Siluriformes order are defined by features of the skull and swimbladder. Catfish are of considerable commercial importance with many of the larger species being farmed or fished for food.

Of the catfish, probably two of the most important both commercially and in terms of food are the American Channel caftish (Ictalurus punctatus) and the African sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus). In Asia, several walking catfish (Clariidae) and shark catfish (Pangasiidae) species are heavily cultivated. Of these, the shark catfish species Pangasius bocourti (basa fish) and Pangasius hypophthalmus (striper fish) are probably the most commercially important, in terms of export.

Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus As well as being North America's most numerous catfish species, the channel catfish is also the most extensively farmed species. In terms of their natural distribution, channel native to the Nearctic, being well distributed in lower Canada and the eastern and northern United States, as well as parts of northern Mexico. They have also been introduced into some waters of landlocked Europe and parts of Malaysia and almost as many parts of Indonesia. They thrive in small and large rivers, reservoirs, natural lakes, and ponds. Channel "cats" are cavity nesters, meaning they lay their eggs in crevices, hollows, or debris, to protect them from swift currents. Channel catfish possess very keen senses of smell and taste. At the pits of their nostrils (nares) are very sensitive odour sensing organs with a very high concentration of olfactory receptors.[citation needed] In channel catfish, these organs are sensitive enough to detect several amino acids at about one part per 100 million in water. In addition, the channel catfish has taste buds distributed over the surface of its entire body. The image shows a channel catfish and commercial channel catfish fillets.

African Sharptooth Catfish Clarias gariepinus African sharptooth catfish are members of the Clariidae family of catfish (the air-breathing catfish). They are native to Africa and the Middle East and live in in freshwater lakes, rivers, and swamps, as well as human-made habitats. The African sharptooth catfish was introduced all over the world in the early 1980s for aquaculture purposes, so is found in countries far outside its natural habitat, such as Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. The fish is a large and eel-like in appearance. usually of dark grey or black coloration on the back, fading to a white belly. In Africa, this catfish is second in size only to the vundu of the Zambesian waters.[1] C. gariepinus has an average adult length of 1.0-1.5 m, reaching a maximum length of 170 cm (67.0 inches) TL.[2] These fish have slender bodies, flat bony heads, notably flatter than in the genus Siluris, and broad, terminal mouths with four pairs of barbels. They also have large accessory breathing organs composed of modified gill arches. Also, only the pectoral fins have spines. They can weigh up to 29 kg. The rearing of the African sharptooth catfish in Africa started in the early 1970s in Central and Western Africa. If was quickly found to be ideally suited to aquaculture as it grows quickly and can be fed on a range of agricultural byproducts. Being hardy it can tolerate adverse water conditions and as an air-breather it can also be reared in high density. Its flesh also fetches a premium as compared to the equally intensively reared tilapia.

Basa Fish Pangasius bocourti Basa Fish is a type of catfish that is native to the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam and the Chao Phraya basin of Thailand. These fish are important food fish with an international market. They are often labeled in North America and Australia as 'basa fish' or 'bocourti'. In the UK, the species is known mainly as 'river cobbler', with 'basa' (particularly in the form of 'basa fillets') also being used. In Europe, these fish are commonly marketed as 'pangasius' or 'panga'. Other related shark catfish may occasionally be falsely labeled as basa fish, including Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (iridescent shark) and Pangasius pangasius (yellowtail catfish). The body of a basa fish is stout and heavy. The rounded head is broader than it is long, with the blunt snout having a white band on its muzzle. This species grows to a length of 120cm (47 in). Basa fish feed solely on plant matter. Basa is heavily reared in aquaculture in Asia and is an economically important fish, being sold to Europe and North America. Catfish as Food Catfish have widely been caught and farmed for food for hundreds of years in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. In Central Europe, catfish were often viewed as a delicacy to be enjoyed on feast days and holidays. Migrants from Europe and Africa to the United States brought along this tradition, and in the Southern United States, catfish is an extremely popular food. The most commonly eaten species in the United States are the channel catfish and the blue catfish, both of which are common in the wild and increasingly widely farmed. Catfish is eaten in a variety of ways. In Europe it is often cooked in similar ways to carp, but in the United States it is popularly crumbed with cornmeal and fried. In Indonesia, catfish is usually served grilled in street stalls called warung and eaten with vegetables and soy sauce; the dish is called pecel lele. Catfish can also be eaten with chili sambal as lele penyet (minced catfish). (Lele is the Indonesian word for catfish.) In Malaysia catfish, called "ikan keli", is fried with spices or grilled and eaten with tamarind and Thai chillies gravy and also is often eaten with steamed rice. In Bangladesh and the Indian states of Odisha, West Bengal and Assam catfish (locally known as Magur) is eaten as a favoured delicacy during the monsoons. Catfish, locally known as thedu or etta in Malayalam, is popular in the Indian state Kerala. In Hungary catfish is often cooked in paprika sauce (Harcsapaprikás) typical of Hungarian cuisine. It is traditionally served with pasta smothered with curd cheese (túrós csusza).