Rick Bayless Presents: Grilled Catfish with Chipotle Salsa

Have you been watching Top Chef Masters Wednesday nights on Bravo Tv?   If you have then you already know him , and if you haven’t, start watching, you’re missing out!      For those not in the know, Rick Bayless has won multiple James Beard awards, is a cookbook author, and is the Chef-Restauraneur behind the wildly popular Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago. His culinary focus is devoted to modern interpretations of authentic Mexican cuisine, and he was called the “”greatest contribution to the Mexican table imaginable” by The New York Time’s Craig Claiborne.

In this video from our friends at Great Chefs, Rick prepares marinated and grilled catfish steaks with a chipotle tomatillo avocado salsa, garnished with cilantro sprigs. This recipe will involve some prep time, as Bayless recommends marinating the fish for several hours before grilling if possible, or, you may marinade the fish and make the salsa a day ahead of time. If you are not a catfish fan, he states that tuna, swordfish, or shark work can be used, and that skewered scallops are an excellent substitute as well.

Quick trivia regarding this dish:  What is a chipotle pepper exactly?  Nothing more than a smoked jalapeño, traditionally dry smoked over a wood fire. If you can’t find them, you may substitute canned chipotle chiles found in most grocery stores.

And here’s is the Spanish name for this recipe fyi:  “Bagre Asado con Salsa de Aguacate Enchipotlado”, although if your Spanish is poor you may want to bypass announcing that to your guests!

var flashvars = {
mute: 'false',
file: 'http://www.savory.tv/wp-content/plugins/proplayer/playlist-controller.php?id=3876-0&sid=1252379548',
enablejs: 'true',
javascriptid: '3876-0',
backcolor: '111111',
frontcolor: 'cccccc',
lightcolor: '66cc00',
skin: 'http://www.savory.tv/wp-content/plugins/proplayer/players/skins/default.swf',
stretching: 'fill',
repeat: 'false',
autostart: 'false'
};

var params = {
wmode: 'transparent',
allowfullscreen: 'true',
allowscriptaccess: 'always',
allownetworking: 'all'
};

var attributes = {
id: 'obj-pro-player-3876-0',
name: 'obj-pro-player-3876-0'
};

swfobject.embedSWF('http://www.savory.tv/wp-content/plugins/proplayer/players/player.swf', 'pro-player-3876-0', '550', '353', '9.0.0', false, flashvars, params, attributes);

The written recipe may be found here, in an excerpt from his cookbook “Rick Bayless’s Mexican kitchen” on Google Books.

On Twitter?   Follow Rick Bayless at @Rick_Bayless for delicious updates and an occasional short recipe. We’ve gathered several of his twitter recipes here.