- On today's "Fit to Eat," I'll be preparing faux fried catfish with tartar sauce, potato chip crisps, and cabbage slaw.

Our guest is D.J.

Baker, owner of Esculent Food Consulting, will tell us all about the work he does with farms all across the Southeast.

We're going to check in with our friends at Footprint Farms, and registered dietician Rebecca Turner has a delicious recipe for fish tacos.

It's gonna be a great show, so stay tuned.

(upbeat music) Welcome back to "Fit to Eat."

I'm your host, Rob Stinson.

Today's guest is the owner of Esculent Food Consulting, D.J.

Baker.

D.J., welcome to the show.

- Thank you, Rob.

Pleasure to be here.

- Oh, you're so welcome.

Man, I'm excited about this one because you and I are gonna be talking all about education and trying to educate Mississippians.

- Absolutely.

- And this one, this is going to be kind of exactly on that market.

We're going to be doing a gluten-free fried-style catfish, but it isn't.

It's not going to be deep-fried, and the batter is going to be a mix of corn meal and cauliflower, 'kay?

So, a whole different twist.

Lots of salt-free seasoning, 'kay?

- Okay.

- So, you'll find, and this is something I know you're familiar with.

You know, we're not looking at putting sugar, salt, or white flour into anything, and we haven't for years on the show.

So, I'm gonna start just quickly to show a simple regular food processor.

Guys, can be any brand.

Does not have to be anything fancy, and then it's basically the slicing blade in there, and what we're going to do is just pulverize.

(processor humming) And in that short amount of time, that's all it really takes, and be careful guys, obviously.

Do not touch the blade.

All right, let's put that down below.

But what you've got, and you can see, is just simple, powdered cauliflower, and I've taken the liberty of actually doing a bunch of it already, but the nice part about it is we're going to blend this together.

- I can smell it already.

- I know, isn't it great?

That's the one thing that we miss, huh?

- Yeah.

- Smell-o-vision.

All right, so we're going to start, and I put that in first 'cause it's the crunchiest, and it, to me, is almost like putting in Italian bread crumbs, you know, that are bigger and chunkier?

- Yes.

- You know what I mean?

To give it some texture.

So, the cornmeal.

Now all the seasoning.

Garlic powder, salt-free.

Onion powder.

Again, salt-free.

Black pepper.

We gotta have a little spice, huh?

- [D.J.]

Gotta have a little spice.

- [Rob] And white pepper, about half as much as the black 'cause it will get you.

- [D.J.]

I love the white pepper.

It's really good.

- Yeah, oh, good, man.

I love, and anybody that loves pepper, I get, I mean, I lived in New Orleans for 30 years, so.

Ground ginger and Parmesan.

Okay, so that's actually our batter, and what I'm gonna do is just mix it all together, and it has a similar look, if you would, to what would be a normal breading, don't you think?

Of like what you would see for a traditional fried catfish.

- Absolutely.

- You know, and that makes it kind of cool.

People don't want to feel they're missing out by eating healthy, and it's so deceiving.

Now, in here, no egg yolks.

I'm just using egg whites, and I've got some beautiful Delta catfish.

- [D.J.]

Of course.

Can't have any others.

- My God, if we were to use anything else, we'd be crazy.

We have the best catfish anywhere.

So, now the trick, beautiful filet, sharp knife, and I'm just gonna make catfish strips.

And as you cut through it, making sure to pull through it, and I just want 'em about yay big.

And you can almost take it down that vein in the middle.

And we're hoping to get five nice little pieces, and these will cook really easily this way.

And we are not going to deep-fry them.

We're going to pan-sear them.

You could bake these.

You could throw these on a pan and bake 'em, and they'd be great, but I thought it's more show, and we can do stuff while we're talking as opposed to seeing 'em.

So, now I've got five.

I'm going to take these and put them into the egg white, which really is just the glue, if you would, and then I'm gonna move this over so we have it closer to the pan.

These are gonna go into the breading, as we call it, and then give it a nice even coat, and gluten-free.

Important to note.

In the pan right now, all that's in there is a zero-fat spray.

I'm gonna add a touch.

Like I told you earlier, about a half a teaspoon of oil just to try and give a base, and then I'm gonna start putting these in there, but let's do this.

Let's have you talk now about how you came to Mississippi.

Talk to me.

You were from Oklahoma originally.

- Yeah, I'm from Oklahoma.

It's funny, actually.

I think one of the first times after I moved to Mississippi and I visited Oklahoma, I went to a restaurant and I had catfish.

Of course that catfish was from Mississippi.

- [Rob] Isn't that funny?

- And I was just like, this is ironic.

I'm leaving Mississippi, going to Oklahoma, and still, I've got Mississippi catfish, but, but I grew up in Oklahoma, born and raised, and five generations.

But it's been a blast being here in Mississippi, and I'm learning about Mississippi history through food.

So, I got to come to Mississippi and start working with kids through a program called FoodCorps.

It was really great, because I got to work with kids in cooking, healthy cooking.

How do we take our traditions and kind of put a healthier twist on them.

- Basically exactly what we're doing on "Fit to Eat," you know, isn't that ironic?

'Cause I often say, "Eat this, not that," you know?

So, this is kind of like cook this way instead of submerging this in oil, having it coated with white bread crumbs, which would be typical, you know, to throw in a whole different twist on it, and it's gonna create such a nice little crispness to this.

- [TJ] Yeah, it's all about method.

- Let me ask you, who do you work with now?

Like what's the current- - So, through Esculent, I work with small farmers across the Mississippi and across the Southeast, working with farms that are sometimes a husband and a wife that decide to start farming, sometimes it's a family unit, so where they have the kids involved or they have cousins and aunts and uncles involved, as well.

But, so a lot of it is family-based farms, but I've gotten to work with farms across the state through some of the nonprofit work that I've done from Saucier down kind of towards where you are at all the way up to Tupelo area and Oxford area.

- And that's incredible.

Really is, and I remember in talking to you, that focus of working with young kids, you know?

If we can, as a state, educate the children at a younger age on how to eat better, the result could be tremendous.

- Yes.

- You know, I'm gonna spray these on this side now with a little- - One of my favorite experiences, I worked with Brown Elementary in Jackson, and one of my favorite experiences was working with pre-K kids, and I actually had them- - Wait a minute.

Pre-K kids.

- Yes.

- Wow, so we're talking, like, four-year-olds.

- We're talking about four-year-olds, five-year-olds.

- Five-year-olds, right.

- Yes, and I was giving them garlic, and you know how destructive little boys are.

They love destroying the outer layers of the garlic.

So, that was the key, and one of 'em- - [Rob] And they had fun.

- They had fun.

One of 'em, as he was tearing it, he was like, "Ooh, Mr. Baker, this smells like meat," and I was like, okay, that kid must be getting some good cooking at home.

- So, he recognized the actual aroma.

I mean, that's incredible.

Now take a look at that.

Isn't that incredible?

How it actually has the look of what fried would be with virtually no oil.

- [TJ] I love the browning look on there.

It looks so good.

- Isn't it something?

And typically, the key, now I'm gonna put just a little touch, so we're gonna end up just about a half.

I put it so lightly at first, and all we gotta do is gently, guys.

You don't want to move the pan too quickly.

Now we're gonna turn the heat down and let these just sit here, because the way that these work, they will cook thoroughly, and the crispier they get to me, I hope you like it that way, the better, I think, it comes out.

- Yeah, if it's not crispy, then why, I mean... - Right, it's got to be faux fried.

- Exactly.

Exactly.

- You know what I mean.

That's kind of the fun part about this one, but a lot of different things in this one, so if you go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat, you'll find the recipes.

And as we kind of see these finish, I'm gonna let 'em sit on the side, 'cause we've got a lot of other stuff.

I want to have this where we have a traditional meal, where basically tarter sauce, you know it's unhealthy.

- Oh.

- You know?

The slaw on the side, usually full of mayonnaise, not healthy.

- Right.

- And potato chips, obviously not healthy, so we're doing healthy on all of that, if that's all right.

- Hey, that's perfect.

- I think it's gonna be fun.

All right.

So we're going to take a short break and check in with Footprint Farms in Jackson.

Our farmer friend Dr. Cindy Ayers Elliot has partnered with a local institution to give away hundreds of pounds of fresh vegetables to her community through the Manna in May program.

Check it out.

- There's things that we can do to help better ourselves and our community, and one of those ways is eating healthier.

(bright orchestral music) One of the best things about being inside the city is that we do so many things local.

Right now, we're working with several churches right here in the community who understands the importance of reaching out and serving.

This week, we are working with Mount Helm Baptist Church, and what they've decided to do is to deliver 15-pound food boxes, not just for one Saturday, but for every Saturday in the month of May, for their parishioners in their community.

- Manna in May is an opportunity for our church to give back to our community, especially those who've been food insecure either because of COVID or economic reasons.

We spent five Saturdays in the month of May distributing altogether 1500 boxes of food, and the food boxes include fruits and vegetables harvested from a local farm.

- [Dr. Elliot] We're supplying hundreds of families their boxes so they can eat healthy and fresh.

- We know a lot of people not only are food insecure, but don't have as much of nutritional food, fruits and vegetables, and so we're thankful that we were able to get basically free food to families who wanted to cook good meals but may not have had the resources to get to the grocery store and buy things like greens or cabbage or potatoes.

- We understand our statistical data with Mississippi with hypertension, blood pressure, diabetes, obesity.

Our local pharmacy is inside our bodies, and we have to activate that by the food that we eat.

- There are a lot of health issues, comorbidities, pre-existing conditions within various communities.

Some call 'em food deserts, others call them food apartheid.

If you live in a certain part of Jackson, you've got to drive miles to get to the nearest grocery store.

And even though we're very thankful for many of our grocery stores in the community, a lot of times the produce that's coming to those grocery stores are from California, Oregon, or someplace.

This is literally produce harvested the week of in a farm that's only about 15, 20 minutes away, so the nutritional value of it is still there.

It's grown in Mississippi soil.

You know, it's grown in Jackson.

- We're so excited to bring in so many people to things that normally they wouldn't have access to, to be able to taste something as sweet as Swiss chard and to truly understand the nutritional value that it has.

- So, this gives folks the opportunity to prepare it the best they know how according to their own dietary needs.

The opportunity to provide something to folks that they absolutely need and know to prepare in healthy but nutritional ways is a blessing to a church that tries to do as best we can to encourage healthy eating.

- We're very proud of what we do here at Footprint Farms, but the part that we love more than ever is being able to work to serve you.

It's our mission to bring health, to bring local, to bring value to our communities, and growing it the way that nature meant for it to grow: healthy.

- Welcome back to "Fit to Eat."

If you're just joining us, D.J.

Baker and I are right in the middle of preparing our recipe, and this faux fried catfish is looking pretty darn good.

- And it's smelling really good, as well.

- All right now, you killed me with a story earlier, and on that note, I'm gonna get a potato.

And I keep insanely sharp knives, and I love my cleaver, right?

Anybody who knows me from the restaurant business knows that watch out when Rob's got the cleaver, and to make these, and they could have been thinner, but what I'm doing is grilling them, so this is kind of their starts that they get.

- Yeah.

- And gluten-free.

- Absolutely.

- So, sharp knife straight down, and I've already taken the liberty of doing roughly two ounces, is all that this dish is gonna give 'em, but all I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do this quickly, guys.

Garlic powder, white pepper, which you said you love, so now I'm really using it, onion powder, black pepper, and chopped parsley.

That's gonna be the seasoning I put on the potatoes, then they're gonna go in here, and I'm just gonna grill 'em while you're talking.

- Yeah, so when I was working with Brown Elementary's second- and third-grade students, you know, I was showing them how to slice sweet potatoes, and so I set it up, and- - Which is not easy.

- It's not easy, and I don't know what I was thinking.

I guess I was younger and more bold, but I had the second- and third-graders, show 'em how to keep their hands up and slice correctly and safely.

And I mean, you know, you're talking about paper-thin slices of sweet potatoes, 'cause we were making sweet potato chips.

Instead of frying them, we put 'em in an oven to bake them.

So, that was a lot of fun, and very successful to see that, you know, you have eight-year-olds and nine-year-olds and seven-year-olds that are able to actually cook and do things that a lot of people didn't think they would be able to do.

- [Rob] Right, or some grownups couldn't do.

- Exactly.

- I mean, let's face facts.

I hate to say it that way.

All right, so I've seasoned those with that seasoning mix, and some of it'll fall off.

There's no worries there 'cause we just want a nice little flavoring.

And the trick on these after I put 'em in the pan and push down on 'em is don't move them, because then everything will stick to the pan more.

So, we're just gonna leave them there.

Now I'm going to do a quick spray on top and just season the top of those lightly, as well.

Anyhow, so no lost fingers.

- None, so, you know, it's like the show, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"

It's a, "Hey, Can You Cook Like a Third Grader?"

(both laugh) - I love it, though, you know?

Because isn't it amazing to see what children can do when they're not told they can't, you know?

- Exactly.

Yes.

- I mean, I think that's just such a blessing, in and of itself.

- When we take that approach around food and not about what you can't do, but what you can do and the possibilities, kids literally eat that up.

- Yeah, you know, and that just makes me smile inside.

All right, well what we're gonna do here, all right, so anybody who's eating fried catfish has to dip it in tartar sauce, correct?

I know.

Yeah.

I see that grimace.

I see that grimace on your face, but here's the trick.

So, tartar sauce is loaded with mayonnaise, and at 12 grams of fat a spoonful, it's one of the worst things you can eat, you know?

And then you're dipping something that typically traditionally has been fried, and I'm thinking, well, you got all these negatives, so now we got this beautiful light catfish.

We most definitely need an alternative.

So, here it is, and guys, a lot of ingredients here, so I know you're not going to remember all of it, so go to mpbonline.org/fittoeat to find the full recipe for everything here, as well as a lot more information on what we've been talking about today, 'cause this one's important.

All right, so here's what we're gonna do.

Yogurt, not mayonnaise, garlic, minced onion, and you notice that they're cut into small little pieces.

That can be done.

I like to throw a little bit of basil in there.

It's just some fresh-chopped.

And now pickles always are in tartar sauce.

They're loaded with sodium and preservatives and everything you do not want to eat.

These are raw, diced, finely diced cucumbers.

And I'm telling you, it's amazing how that works.

Okay, now over here guys, what we're going to do, let's just, you know what at least going to be easier, I think, just to kind of take and turn.

Oh, look at that.

That is just what we're looking for.

A nice and browned crisp.

Perfect.

- Oh, those look so delicious.

- Yep, and I tell you what.

To me, it's so much easier and it's so much nicer looking at something that you know isn't fried.

You know?

I mean, what a beautiful thing that is.

Now, I find in this, rather than a spoon, it's easier to stir this one with a fork.

And this, if you were to compare the nutrition, the analysis of the nutrition in this versus your traditional tartar sauce, I mean, you know, it's night and day, and I'm telling you the flavor they're going to get on that catfish, you're not gonna be missing anything.

I call it, eat this, not that, and right now that tartar sauce is just where I want it, where it's just coated.

The yogurt will soak in.

It'll liquefy a little bit, nothing much you have to do to this.

You didn't really cook anything, and you get that nice, fresh flavoring.

Well, listen, we're going to take a quick break and check in with registered dietician Rebecca Turner.

She's going to show us another easy way to cook up a catfish that you've got to try for yourself.

Take a look.

(upbeat guitar music) - Did you know that Mississippi leads the country in catfish production and has held this position since the late 1980s?

It's true.

Known for our delicious farm-raised catfish, Mississippi boasts, on average, 205 catfish farms.

Now, you can't find a meal more Southern than a homemade batch of fried catfish, and if you catch the fish at your favorite watering hole, well, it tastes even better.

While there's nothing wrong with savoring a basket of deep-fried fish filets with hush puppies and coleslaw, there are healthier ways to cook up and serve this delightful protein at home.

One way that might surprise you is using Mississippi farm-raised catfish for tacos.

Yep, fish tacos.

They are easier to make than you might think and tastier your than your average taco, too.

The hardest part is deciding whether you want to bake, blacken, or grill your fish filets.

Catfish filets are naturally low in calories and sodium and packed with protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals, and when you choose alternative cooking methods rather than frying, you get all the health benefits of catfish without added calories from frying.

I prefer mine blackened in a skillet using low-sodium Creole seasoning.

Now, once you have your fish filets cooked, it's time to assemble your tacos.

Start with a six-inch whole-grain tortilla.

By choosing whole-grain, you're adding extra heart- healthy fiber to your meal.

Next comes the slaw.

You can use a store-bought variety or you can make yours from scratch.

I recommend repurposing Chef Rob's cabbage slaw.

Now to build your fish taco, all you have to do is add a spoonful of slaw to your tortilla, add in a fish filet, and then squeeze with a fresh line if you're feeling fancy.

Pair your fish tacos with homemade guacamole or black bean salsa for a Mississippi meal that is fit to eat.

- Welcome back to "Fit to Eat."

I'm here with D.J.

Baker from Esculent Food Consulting, and we are almost done with today's recipe, and I'll tell you what, huh?

This one is coming out so nicely.

So, we're gonna do a healthy slaw.

So, again, I'm taking some yogurt.

- Delicious yogurt.

- Yep, just beautiful, plain yogurt if you pick it at the store.

Slaw usually has a sweetness.

This is a healthy sugar substitute.

And Dijon mustard.

I love Dijon mustard in that kind of slaw, and it gives it a little pep, so to speak, a little spice.

All we do is mix this around.

Now I'm gonna throw in the garlic.

And now the beautiful part is we're throwing in just cabbage, thin, thin-cut onions, red cabbage and green cabbage, and I like to throw in a few carrot stalks for contrast, and all right.

So, Esculent Foods, a little bit more about it.

I noticed that you brought some stuff here, so let's talk about that, 'cause all I'm doing, listen.

All I have to do now is mix this together and put it on the plate, and we're going to have our finished product, but I want to hear what you brought today.

- Awesome.

Yeah, I brought some of the fermented products that I make.

A lot of fermented foods have a lot of healthy benefits for your gut, and they say that also for your brain, as well.

And so I got some kimchi there.

I've got a fermented root beer, my own recipe.

- Oh wow.

Oh wow.

- And then I've got a ginger lemon kombucha, and I've got a Ethiopian spiced sauerkraut that's made with the Ethiopian spice Berbere.

- Okay, so, you know, it's interesting, too, because the definition of Esculent, it's ironic, but when I Googled it, and actually went into the dictionary, it came up fit to eat.

So, your company and us have something more in common than you could even imagine.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

- Is that not crazy?

- Absolutely, it is.

- Yeah, I thought that was so ironic.

So, now that we've put this slaw on the plate, I'm gonna move this up onto the cutting board kind of front and center.

A very atypical faux fried catfish.

And the irony of that I think is something, but, you know, you more than any guest I think I've had really identifies with it because you've already started the path of working with children, trying to bring that health into the community.

Esculent Foods, everything that you brought today, the whole essence of it, if there was one message you'd like to say to try and put out there to people, what would it be?

- I would say support your local schools.

Support your local, you know, join the PTA, get involved, support your local farmers.

That's the biggest thing.

Support your local farmers, and getting people engaged, getting your schools, getting- - And the farmers' market, you know?

- The farmers' market.

- Local farmer's market.

- Getting your local church or institutions involved in the process of food.

I think the more we come together and localize our food, we can become more sustainable.

- Yeah.

What a killer concept and, you know, so I did this recipe specifically for someone I knew on the coast who has got celiac disease, so this is a gluten-free recipe, but more importantly, it's taking advantage, just like you do in your process, of great local ingredients.

- Yeah.

- And showing that you can still have tasty, healthy food if you put some thought into it, and I think that's the essence of what I keep hearing in what you're describing and being able to show the kids that, hey, you can do this and you're farming this right here on the land in Mississippi.

I mean, what is better than that, you know?

I mean, that's the true essence, I think, of what the show was created for.

- I enjoy working with institutions, farmers, schools, so if anyone wants to find me, esculentms.com is gonna be the name of the website.

And we're also on social media, on Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram.

So, we want to just continue spreading the word, and education is the first key to it.

- That's right.

Hey, looks like we're out of time, but I think everything turned out great, and I want to thank D.J.

Baker for joining us today.

If you want to learn more about anything you've seen in this episode, then head over to mpbonline.org/fittoeat, and don't forget to follow and like our Facebook page.

Until next time, I'm your host Rob Stinson.

Eat well.

(bright instrumental music)