Basa????????????

Heck, in that case, just look up Catfish.
Got to be aweful similar.
I didn't know what Basa was and looked it up. It's just like cat.

you can't go wrong with smoked fish IMO,

mark

Catfish?? I like to blacken or fry them

We've been loving Basa around here. It's a wonderful fish - actually better than catfish, very sweet clean meat. I've been giving some thought to smoking some. Let us know how it comes out.

I can only answer one question mark. Never heard of it- Heh....

Jack was that the same brine I used on the last batch of catfish? The one I smoked with the dove and venison? http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=13365

It was a good brine...worked out well for my catfish anyway. :)

I grew up in Saskatchewan not realizing that absolutely nobody there knew how to cook fish except to batter it and stick it into a deep fryer.  Years later a business partner came back on a Friday afternoon from a trip to Winnipeg with a suitcase full of that city's famous smoked goldeye.  Everybody at the office gorged themselves.  Even more years later I discovered basa while travelling in Southeast Asia where it usually was grilled over a hot charcoal fire about 5 minutes after it was swimming contentedly in an estuary. 

So now I'm trying a couple of basa fillets.  These two guys total 500 grams.  I put them in a marinade of 1/2 cup EVOO, some shaved carrots, some chopped green onions and celery (total maybe 1/2 cup), a couple tsp of kosher salt, 1/4 cup lemon juice and some ground pepper, a tsp of thyme, three garlic cloves thinly sliced.  After a few hours (would have preferred overnight) I took them out and threw away the marinade, but patted them dry and sprinkled just a touch of my standard pork rib rub (mostly paprika, brown sugar and salts of various kinds--everybody has a favourite).  

Here they are, ready for the smoker.  If this works, then some other day I'll do up a whole bunch and invite the neighbourhood over.


I'm using my new Bradley digital 4-rack with the original equipment water pan at the bottom, plus a second water pan under the rack that the fish will be resting on, with some apple juice in the water.  The second pan helps stabilize the temperature, which I have set for 220F.   I am using a mixture of 3 alder and 2 apple smoking bisquettes, enough for an hour and a half.


Friday afternoon kit:  smoker, fridge, instrument of musical torture, friendly dog:


And now the finished product:


I thought the smoke was a little heavy, but otherwise the flavour was excellent and the flesh was perfectly done.  So next time 1 1/2 hours of cooking at 220F, with alder smoke for the first hour.