♪ They say ye'are what you eat, so I don't eat chicken feet ♪ ♪ But I love me summa' Grandma's pickled beets ♪ ♪ Well, cut it up, put it'na pan ♪ ♪ Throw it on these sholders see where it lands ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Maters, taters, beans and corn ♪ ♪ The cow's in the barn and the sheep's been shorn ♪ ♪ Kids in the barnyard ♪ ♪ Chasin' Grandpa's chickens, chickens, chickens ♪ ♪ Spices, slices, cuts and dices ♪ ♪ Gonna slash your grocery prices ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Help you grow your garden good ♪ ♪ With recipes to suit your mood ♪ ♪ Try some grub you've never tried before ♪ ♪ 'Fore, 'fore ♪ ♪ Smash it with a wooden mallet ♪ ♪ Gonna educate yer palette ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ In Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen ♪ ♪ We gonna cook some good now ♪ Hello and welcome to the Farmer's Kitchen.

We're the farmers and this is our kitchen.

And you know what?

We went fishing recently.

You have been fishing a lot.

[laughs] And you know what?

You kind of want to get inventive with your dishes.

And you think, "Okay, what are some new things we can do with fish?"

Not too long ago, a very friendly person on our Facebook page said, "Mr.

Farmer, why don't you make a catfish dish, a specific catfish dish?"

He called it a catfish mole.

Some people call it a mole down.

Interesting thing.

One time, years and years ago, before I even knew you, I was driving through Atlanta.

You know how stressful it is to get to Atlanta.

Oh, yeah.

And I was so hungry and got down south of Atlanta somewhere.

And I stopped at this little place.

It was just a little diner.

And they had something called catfish mole.

That is what they called it.

So, of course, I had to try that.

This is the way that I remember it.

It might not be right, but this is the taste that I remember in that.

It's kind of a stew.

But I'm gonna do it my way.

So, these regional dishes that are out there, I want to start traveling.

I like to travel.

I've been to a lot of some of these places.

And some of these people who do these things, you know, we were the subject of one of those shows not too long ago.

A lot of folks out there know Andrew Zimmern.

He came to our house, and he wanted us to make our famous burgoo.

You remember that?

You do make good burgoo.

And so, that's a regional thing here.

And everybody's got their own recipe.

And everybody thinks theirs is the best.

I will not fight you over it.

I like all kinds of burgoos.

And there's a lot of folks out there that make it good.

But he came in, and I took him squirrel hunting.

He had fun?

He had fun.

I don't think he had ever taken a squirrel before.

And then we shot bows and arrows together, and then it rained.

That's right.

But you got it all out before the rain.

Perfect timing.

Of course, you've got to cook burgoo outside.

But we got it done.

And Andrew's a nice guy.

And we had fun filming that show.

So, he was doing a regional show at that point.

Now, when you talk about mulldown or a mull, there are so many people out there with so many ideas about how to do that.

Back in the 30s, in a little southern town in Georgia, these two folks had a cook-off.

And they were at each other's throats.

It was kind of tongue-in-cheek, but they were having fun with it.

And they were even talking to the newspapers of the separate towns so they could fire each other up against each other.

But this thing is a really big deal in some towns.

So, I'm going to try my version of it.

So, what are your thoughts, without having had this, about a mull or a mulldown?

I have no idea, actually.

No idea?

I'm excited, though.

I'm seeing your ingredients.

I like potatoes.

I like onions.

I like my tomatoes.

You've got catfish and bacon.

And recipes, they don't have to be written on paper.

I thought about something I wanted really bad, and I made it today.

I'm gonna show you in a little while, and I think you're gonna like it.

Okay, I'm excited.

It's just really easy, and I think you'll dig it.

This is a layered dish.

It's really unusual.

But you think about once you fry your bacon.

You leave the grease.

You're going to come back.

I am going to, and a lot of people don't do this, "I'm going to do this.

I'm going to cook that fish a little bit."

Everything in there is going to be partially cooked.

So, when you put it in the oven or if you cook it over the fire outside, it's already started.

So, everything's going to be kind of heated up.

After we take our bacon out, we're going to turn this fish over.

I'm gonna put a little bit of blackened seasoning on it.

Just turn that over.

Just get it cooking just a little bit.

After that, we take our onions and potatoes and cut those up real thin.

Take our catfish, set it aside.

Take our bacon, set it aside.

Layer potatoes.

Layer onions.

I like that.

Put your catfish.

Then your tomatoes, your seasoned tomatoes.

Now something we're going to use here is some hot sauce.

As much or as little as you want.

I'm also gonna use some of our blackened seasoning.

We're going to use some Cajun seasoning and some smoked paprika.

Plus, salt and pepper to your taste.

Also, a little bit of butter and some bay leaf.

Sounds good to me.

So, that's how we're going to build this thing.

So, we're going to cut our potatoes up real thin.

And we're gonna cut our onions into thin rings all the way across.

Now the time that I went down to Georgia, and I was already working with Kentucky Afield.

Now, Kentucky Afield was a television show that I hosted for over 20 years.

I worked with the Department of Fish and Wildlife for almost 30 years.

That was a show about hunting and fishing and the outdoors in Kentucky.

And on that show, we were an educational television show.

We talked about hunting and fishing and the outdoors and nature.

And also, once we took Wild Game, we would bring that back and show you how to make that.

So, while I was down in Georgia hunting for boar, when we stopped at that little shop and it said catfish, I thought, "Okay, I'm always needing a new catfish recipe."

And that stuck in the back of my mind until this fellow on social media said, "Hey, Mr.

Farmer, would you make this recipe?"

So, I thought about it, and I remembered how it tasted.

I remember that it was fairly spicy.

There was a seafood kind of seasoning in there, you might call it.

And I just remember that it was just fantastic.

But I remember that it had a bacon taste.

And I remember that all those flavors combined were just fantastic.

And I hope I can do this justice here.

Well, you've got a good start.

It's bacon.

Yes.

I like your start.

Everybody gets in a big hurry today when they're cooking everything.

I find that lower temperatures may take a little longer, but you get the perfect bacon at a lower temperature.

Look at that.

Yum.

I can't eat this?

I wish you wouldn't.

You can eat it, but when it's in the recipe.

Now you set any fire alarms off like this at lower temperatures, hopefully.

That's right.

So, now I'm going to take that catfish.

This oil is nice and hot.

I'm not dumping any of that out either.

I'm going to drop my catfish in here directly in my bacon grease.

Bacon grease.

I like that.

So, what I'm going to put on here on this catfish, well, I like blackened catfish.

Now, would that not bring a great flavor to this dish?

Oh, yeah.

You already got blackened catfish flavor and bacon?

Yeah.

I like it.

It's a good start.

Now, this whole thing is, after we get it layered up, it's going in the oven.

It's going to cook.

But I like to get everything like we talked about, just a little bit cooked.

I'm going to also heat the tomatoes up and season those so we've got a little bit of a head start.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and turn this on and get my tomatoes warm.

But what this does is basically lower our cooking time.

A couple of bay leaves.

And what is this about, three and a half, four cups of diced tomatoes?

I would say three and a half cups.

Yeah, diced tomatoes.

Because we used some for something else little while ago.

I'm also gonna take some hot sauce.

Yeah, sure.

Just a little bit.

That's like a lot to me.

It's up to you how much you want on that.

I'm gonna turn it up just a little bit.

And, again, I'm not trying to cook this all the way through.

I just want to get it started.

So, this pan is already hot.

We put it in a 350-degree oven.

We're off to the races.

What I'm looking for here is not a really extended cooking time.

Normally, this dish, if you just did it in the pan, didn't cook anything.

It's a two-hour ordeal.

We're hungry.

We're always starving.

Just kind of browning it up a little.

Yeah.

And we get the seasoning going, trying,to get some flavor.

And when you're done - Smells good.

Smell good?

Yes, that smells good.

Sammy?

Yes, Sammy.

Remember Sammy doing that?

Smells good.

You're going to want to eat this catfish.

I'm gonna have to try a little bite maybe.

Make sure it's good.

Again, not cooking this all the way through.

Are you thinking about catfish in a stew?

Catfish is always good.

Catfish in a casserole?

Yummy.

I like it.

You'd be shocked.

I think you'll like it.

So, we're going to need a little bit of salt, however much you prefer.

A little bit of black pepper.

I like pepper.

You just ground this Tellicherry pepper.

Don't be afraid to try new things.

You know, somebody says, "Well, I don't do it that way."

They're not you.

I have tried so many things.

Some of them worked, and some of them failed.

But the more you do it, the more mistakes you make, the better.

Because you learn not to do that.

So, the older you get, the more you cook, the more combinations you try.

You know how things are going to be before you even try them.

You like to try new things.

Oh, I do.

Yes, you do.

So don't ever think because somebody says, "Well, I don't do mine that way," and you can't do it that way.

Yes, you can.

You can do whatever you want.

And once you learn combinations, you're going to find out that, wow, that works.

Be your own chef.

Follow your own instincts.

Try what you like.

And I guarantee you, you're going to be a happy camper.

So, let me tell you a quick story.

Everybody wants us to follow up on a little Montana.

Montana loves you.

He thinks you're his mommy.

That's right.

He's getting pretty big, though.

He's getting really big.

But here's what happened if you haven't watched the first part of this a while back.

Montana, our cute little baby, was totally rejected by his mother.

Yes, he was.

So, she would hit him so hard.

We would try everything.

We tied her up.

We tried to hold her.

We did get some colostrum.

But after that point, I think if we'd have left her alone - she was taking care of her other than lying in the spot.

I think if we had left her alone, she'd have probably killed that baby.

She was hitting it hard and hurting it.

Yes, she was.

So, Nicki became mama.

That's right.

I brought him up to the house and said, "Look what we got."

Now let me ask you this.

Did you kind of have fun with that?

I did have fun.

I did really have fun with that.

She had to bottle-feed him three or four times a day.

He stayed on the porch in a little dog box.

He did it during the night.

At night with Boo.

Boo was his protector.

Boo took care of him.

And, you know, we knew someday that he was going to have to return to the general population.

But he grew up rapidly.

He ran around the yard with us.

Everywhere you went, whatever you did.

He helped me with the landscaping.

He rode the gator.

So, anything I did, if I took the trash out, he went with me.

He did everything with me.

In fact, when he hears the gator now, he gets upset because he wants to be on it.

He's the cutest little thing.

So, you recognize, though, that he needed to be with his own folks.

And he started eating all my flowers.

Yes.

All the good flowers.

All your expensive flowers.

Yes.

So, she proposed this scenario.

Oh, if we put him back into the general population, he will become friends with Mojo.

Because Mojo is sweet.

And Mojo will instantly take care of him, and they will become friends, I said to Nicki.

That is so naive.

Sounds kind of like a fairy tale, you know.

But I was hoping.

You were hoping.

Because you know what?

They all run to their mothers.

I'm thinking, where is he going to run?

Because I can't be out there at night.

He needs a mother.

I thought you were hopelessly naive.

But you know what?

Before that, when I used to have them out, they kind of bonded through the fence.

I think Mojo knew that little baby needed something.

We put Montana in with Mojo.

And almost instantly, right they bonded Because he already loved him.

Those dogs are so intuitive when it comes to somebody being in trouble.

And I think you're right.

I think he sensed that.

I have pictures of them.

He knew.

And you were 1,000% correct, which is why I'm cooking you this fabulous meal today.

That's right.

And now they hang together.

He thinks that's his mother.

In fact, the other day I went out, and I didn't find him.

He came out of the dog box.

So, Montana even goes in the dog boxes.

So, I snuck up.

It was getting dark.

And you can't go out there without the dogs noticing you there.

So, I snuck out there to see what was going on.

And I got this picture of them lying right on top of each other.

And this went on day and night for a long time.

So, he has become a sheep.

He knows he's not a person now.

The moms were mean to him at first.

But now they're used to him.

And he has Mojo.

And the only one allowed near Mojo when he eats is Montana.

He trusts Montana.

So, I just got to trust your instincts on him.

So, I have a fairy tale.

You do.

To write a story about.

So, that's the story of Montana and Mojo.

Now, if you want to, you can put just a little bit of sugar in there and cut that acid.

And that's tasting pretty good.

Now, it's not real spicy.

Nicki doesn't like everything too hot.

Now, while you're cutting away there, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm gonna to introduce these onions to the beautiful bacon grease and parts and pieces of catfish.

I'm gonna to let them fry up a little bit.

That'll be our base there.

I'm gonna to come in with our potatoes.

I'm going to start layering this.

Now, I've been on a fennel kick right after I got off of my smoked paprika kick.

So, no fennel in this?

No fennel.

I can do it.

Don't do it.

I do love fennel, though.

I'm kind of getting back to the smoked paprika now.

So, I'm going to come back there with that.

There's our onions and our potatoes.

There's one layer.

Everything that I'm doing now is speeding up the whole process.

If you did everything raw in here, if you did it with a cold pan, it would take you a lot longer.

So, we're getting ahead of the game.

So now we're going to take some fish.

Yummy.

That smells so good.

You know, I remember the smell when she brought that to me.

I remember asking her at the time, "Do you have any grits to go with that?"

She said, "Yeah, we do a side of grits."

So, I kind of put that together.

That sounds good.

So, again, really thinly sliced onions.

Again, cook something nice.

And the one thing about this dish, which it lends itself very nicely to being heated back up.

Most fish dishes, you don't want to heat it back up.

This is really nice.

Now, on each layer, I forgot on the last one, but I'm going to put some smoked paprika on there.

That bacon is sitting over there looking all innocent.

It's not getting away.

I can't believe you haven't eaten it yet.

I actually snuck a little.

Oh, really?

Yeah, just a small piece.

I don't even know what to think about that.

To me, when you make the dish like this, your fish has more of that consistency of a fried fish.

Some more matters.

Yummy.

I like this.

Don't you, though?

I do.

I'm excited to eat it.

Here's our bay leaf.

One of our bay leaves is in there.

You see where I'm going with this?

I do.

I do.

Now, obviously, we're going to have to have some cornbread.

Can you have cornbread and grits in the same night?

Why not?

Who's going to stop us?

Is there anybody in this room that will stop us?

Kelly says no.

A little bit of smoked paprika.

I like this.

Just kind of layering.

Kind of layering it up.

Now, this is something different.

I know we haven't made this on the show because I don't know if I've tried to fix this since I had it in Georgia 122 years ago.

Wow.

That's a long time ago.

Is this our last layer, maybe?

Yeah, this will be the last one.

Now, see, it's cooking away right now.

Hear it?

Yeah.

That's a happy cooking dish.

Some of our tomatoes on top.

Yummy.

You know, I'm going to let you do that.

You want the rest of them on there?

Yes, please.

That's kind of pretty, isn't it?

It is.

So, a little more seasoning.

Smoked paprika.

And this is not hot sauce.

Yeah, whatever.

It's something kind of like it.

Is that so I can't eat?

And if you want to finish it off with a little salt and pepper, there's no law against it.

That hot sauce smells good.

Oh, yeah.

So, we took a little short trip to Michigan.

We did.

So, our granddaughter graduated high school.

How is that possible when I'm 32 and you're 38?

She was, what, seven when we did this show?

I know.

That's amazing.

So, while she was graduating, I was fishing.

That's right.

Because I had to bring food back.

That's right.

And I got to fish with your brother, who is extremely limited in his fishing abilities.

Yes, he is.

So, I went out with Dennis and Tammy, a married couple who live up there, friends of Willie's.

Good fisher people.

Good fisher people.

I mean, they know how to get it done.

So, Tammy was on his team.

She called the team Willie because she felt sorry for him.

Why did she lose out?

She lost out.

Well, the thing is, she caught quite a few fish.

So, they said they won.

Right.

I don't believe that.

Dennis and I know they didn't because they were counting non-sport fish.

I saw some of the fish he held up.

Let's see the pictures of the huge fish he caught.

This was typical of his catch that day.

On the other hand, look what I caught.

Amazing.

Astounding.

[laughs] He did get one good fish, didn't he?

He did.

He caught fish.

He did catch fish that day, but Tammy caught a lot more.

Did you guys have fun?

We had fun.

And then I fished on your lake where you grew up, caught pike, and nice bass.

It was just a beautiful day, a beautiful weekend.

Great for fishing.

You could have used any of those fish that are legal to keep in this.

You could use bass, bluegill.

And if you kept a keeper-sized pike, as long as you cut those bones out, you could put that in there.

This is ready to go in the oven.

[music playing] Let's clean this mess up.

And we're almost ready.

Are you excited?

I am.

Let me see how excited you look.

Can I see mine?

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

I'm excited.

[music playing] What do you think, Ms.

Farmer?

It looks amazing.

I'm excited.

And I want you to look.

When you bring it up, you can see all the goodies in there.

Laying on the grits.

I'll put that right on top of the grits.

Oh, that looks so good.

And what do you think would happen if I put some more bacon on there?

Would that bother you?

No, I would love that.

You'd be all right with that?

I would be good with that.

A little more bacon.

Yes, I like it.

And a little parsley.

Making it awful pretty.

What do you think, Mrs.

Farmer?

I want it.

I'm ready.

That's making me hungry.

yes On my side, can I put a little hot sauce?

Your side, please.

I promise I won't get it on your side.

Your side's a lot bigger, isn't it?

Okay, I'm going to let you go first.

Do you see our cute little cornbread?

It is beautiful.

We made butternut a couple of weeks ago.

We did.

Did you get a little bit of everything in it?

Oh, yes.

Did you get your fish?

Oh, that's delicious.

And your taters?

That is delicious.

Is it?

Uh-huh.

Now see, I thought you would like this.

The potatoes cooked perfectly.

They're really tasty.

And the onions.

That's the way I remember it.

Let me taste your fish.

Are you digging it, Mrs.

Farmer?

That is really good.

I like that with the grits.

Oh, I just got a bite of that fish.

And it was kind of towards the top, so it crisped up.

It's crunchy.

Oh, my.

Oh, I've got to get a piece of bacon in there.

Catfish mulldown, or catfish mull, whichever you prefer.

This is delicious.

Over grits.

Kentucky style.

I like it.

I really like the potatoes in there, too.

That█s, you know what That█s really good I don't want to go out on a limb.

But that might be the favorite thing we've done in like a couple of months.

Catfish, you've got to find different ways to do your fish if you're out catching a bunch of fish.

That's really good.

So, earlier today, this is just a little something I wanted to try for a long time.

I had it in my brain.

Everybody does the cucumber salad with the tomatoes and the cucumber and the vinegar and the sugar.

I thought, "Okay, hang on just a minute.

I love pickles, and I love cucumbers."

Yes, you do.

But what if you could do something almost instantly?

In that realm, why don't you try this?

See what you think.

I know you like your cucumbers.

That's really good.

Tastes pickle-ish?

It does taste like a pickle.

Let me see that.

That's really good.

Good job.

And it's crunchy.

It's super crunchy.

That's what's good about it.

You can tell the cucumber is fresh.

Instant pickles.

In the same vein, you've got a bunch of cucumbers coming in, and you don't know what to do with them.

Once you use your liquid and you eat all the pickles out, you reuse them.

Put some more cucumbers in there.

I say pickles, but they're cucumbers.

You're doing it about every hour, aren't you?

So, let me show you what I did.

I took probably a half a cup of vinegar and equal parts water and I came back with some turmeric, which is good for you.

We all know that.

And I did a shake.

I didn't measure anything just till the water got some color.

So, I came back with a little salt, obviously.

This is your own little concoction.

Yeah.

I wanted to try it, and I thought, if this is good.. I hope it is, I'll let it sit for a couple of hours.

What do you think?

It's like a really fresh pickle.

I like it.

It's really crunchy.

Just a few red pepper flakes.

Just a few, because, Nicki.

That's like a lot to me.

It's just a baby one.

Dill weed.

Now I might put more turmeric in that than last month, but I'm still digging it.

You know, you can see that I'm not measuring.

A little pickling spice.

Now the heavy stuff wants to fall out first, so I'll try to block that and get some of the other stuff.

A little black pepper.

Just a little bit.

This is your homemade pickles,yeah.

Yeah.

What is a half onion?

I cut about half an onion up for you.

So, I'm going to get some - this is a Vidalia onion, and just a little bit of this is two cloves of garlic.

Chop those up.

Cucumbers cut a little bigger, because you want big chunks.

I like them thick like that.

That's just me.

So then, you put them in here, and it's amazing how quick, and you can do them as salty as you want.

And you've already refilled the bowl once.

You ate the whole pickle and just put more on there.

I love cucumbers.

And you've got a taste that's very similar to a pickle.

It's not as salty as a regular pickle.

If you want to put a little sugar in there, you can do that too.

We're not going to do it.

Mrs.

Farmer?

Yes.

We look around us, and we see we did a lot of stuff tonight.

I want to keep eating, though.

I'm going to let you keep eating.

That can be your dish.

I ate all my hot sauce on there.

No, you put hot sauce.

That has to be your dish.

I want a new dish.

That's you.

I was afraid you were going to say that.

We're going to dig into this.

And if you saw this, and you thought, "Oh my goodness, do they have any more recipes?"

If somebody came to you nicely and said, Mrs.

Farmer, where are these recipes at?"

I would say timfarmerscountrykitchen.com.

And we do have a Facebook page.

Yes, we do.

And we have lots of folks on there, and they'd like to talk, "Mrs.

Farmer, is it difficult to get on there?"

It is kind of difficult.

What do you have to do?

You hit like.

That's amazing.

So, we're going to turn the cameras off, and we're going to eat.

Because this is not a set kitchen.

This is not a fake set.

This is our kitchen, and we're actually cooking dinner.

When you see a show, we're cooking dinner.

And we're starving.

And we're starving.

So, Mrs.

Farmer, it's all about... Good times.

Good friends.

And really good eats.

See you next week on Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen.

Let's dig in.

This is your bowl.

Thank you very much.

I'm going to get me a new bowl.

[music playing] Funding for Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen is brought to you by Amerson Farms Country Store.

Something for every member of the family.

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The Spine Center of Central Kentucky.

[music playing] Wilderness Road Hospitality, Stanford, Kentucky.

Visit Frankfort, Kentucky's spirited capital city.

[music playing] [music playing] To order a cookbook, email TimFarmerCK@gmail.com.