You can’t eat Catfish Stew in the dining room.
You have to eat Catfish Stew (1) outdoors, (2) on the porch, or (3) at the kitchen table, preferably with family and friends.
Regardless of how good it is, Catfish Stew probably will never have the culinary standing that Lobster Bisque does.
I had looked in many church and organization cookbooks for a recipe. I found one and cooked it, but it wasn’t as I remembered the stew tasted so I went on another search. I found Wadboo Catfish Stew in the 1975 cookbook, “Tidbits from the South Carolina Ladies Auxiliary” of the South Carolina Soil Conservation Districts.
It had been submitted by Mrs. Virginia Umphlett. Mrs. Umphlett, whose husband Clyde died in 1999, is in fair health. Her daughter, Michal Lance, and Michal’s sons Kelly and Daniels live with her in her home near Moncks Corner.
“Are you a Baptist?” I asked Mrs. Umphlett when I tracked down both her and her recipe.
“No,” she answered. She was reared a Baptist and all her family are Baptists, her daughter Anne Keys, who lives a short distance away in Pinopolis, explained. But when Virginia married Clyde Umphlett, she joined her husband’s church.
Former Baptist Virginia Umphlett makes a good Catfish Stew.
Her family has traditionally cooked this in the summer to eat outdoors, Anne explained, but they also like it in the days after Thanksgiving when they have had the turkey-dressing-gravy menu one day and leftovers the next. It is also a good recipe for any cold day. Her family usually serves the Wadboo Catfish Stew with cornbread or corn sticks, but her late father liked it in a bowl over rice as our Louisiana friends would serve gumbo.
Our little group critiqued the stew and had these suggestions:
(a) It was too thick and needed more of a soupy taste, so next time I shall use more water in cooking the fish to have more stock. (b) It needed a hotter, spicier taste, and that was my fault for not using the hot sauce listed and not using the can of tomatoes with green chili peppers. (c) One person did not like the amount of fatback or salt pork cubes, so maybe I shall use less in the next cooking. I shall also use the catfish fillets instead of the whole fish to eliminate the boning.
Anne says this is better reheated the second day than on the day it is cooked. This cooking – along with the boning, peeling, cubing, dicing and simmering – takes a while, so you should plan to do all this on Saturday and reheat it for a warm and comforting … Sunday Dinner.
Wadboo Catfish Stew
4 pounds dressed whole catfish or 3½ pounds catfish fillets
1½ pounds salt pork or fatback
2 pounds onions
1 14½-ounce can tomatoes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 bottle catsup (small 14-ounce)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce Salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste 2 pounds potatoes
(Optional: 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes and green chili peppers)
Boil the catfish until meat comes off the bone easily. Cool. Separate meat from bones. Keep broth to use in place of plain water. Dice the salt pork or fatback in half inch cubes and fry until crisp. Drain and set aside. Peel and dice potatoes into ½-inch cubes and fry until a golden brown in the fatback drippings. Drain and put aside with the meat and fish.
Chop onions into small pieces and put into a large pot. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, catsup, Worcestershire sauce, some of the broth and the tomatoes-chilis if used. Cook at least an hour. (The longer it cooks, the better it is.)
An hour before serving, add fish, fried meat, potatoes and seasonings. Simmer, stirring often until time for serving. (Add more broth to make it the consistency you want.)
Serve with cornbread or corn sticks. Makes 10-12 servings.