So I was shopping last night and I came across some whole catfish.
I instantly had the idea to work some (uncut apart from the base) asparagus, bacon, shortcomings of jalapeno (to equalize the bitter/sharp profiles of the two), black pepper, and a squeeze of lemon in a pan, bringing the bacon to a state of 'almost crispy' before the second step of the process.
I then planned to stuff the insides of the whole catfish with this concoction.
After this, I planned to lightly salt and pepper the outside of the fish with black and red pepper, and follow that up with a good lemon squeeze or zest.
I would then bake at 350 using olive oil across the pan and drizzled across the fish itself.
Served with a leafed, halved artichoke complete with a garlic butter.
Before I set out to do this, I was wondering if any of you more spoken individuals would consider altering my original idea or what you may think of the general idea of it all. Should I tent it to prevent any moisture loss, or do you think that the stuffing, olive oil drizzle, and lemon will keep that in check? Is my initial 350 degree temperature too much (this I fear the most)?
Unfortunately I lack a good camera to take the pictures, so we'll just have to go on point of word.
But I am curious on thoughts and possible direction on how best to make the profile sync together well.
In my head, it sounds delicious, but I am curious to see how other people view the idea.