Turns out the frugal mystery fish I bought last week is a very mild catfish..

[Fumesucker]

Saw these frozen filets called "Swai" at the grocery last week for for a lot less than catfish, bought a bag and stuck them in the freezer and kind of forgot about them until tonight.. Finally Googled the stuff and found out it's a species of catfish that for some reason is illegal to call "catfish" on the packaging in the USA..

http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/2010/08/fish-you-just-ate-may-be-more-of.html

Since my oven is a toaster oven I used teh Google once again and found this catfish recipe on toaster-oven.net, came out pretty good even though I substituted saltine crackers for Ritz and a mix of Romano, Provolone and Parmesan I already had a bag of in the fridge, also a bit of salt and a moderate sprinkle of pepper.

http://www.toaster-oven.net/Toaster-Oven-Recipes/catfish.htm

You will need the following ingredients to prepare Catfish for the Toaster Oven.

20 crushed round crackers, preferably Ritz
1/2 cup Parmesan or cheddar cheese, grated
1/3 cup minced parsley
4 Tablespoon of melted butter or margarine
4 catfish fillets

Turn on Toaster Oven to 400º Fahrenheit. Take the crackers, cheese, parsley, and mix together in a medium bowl. Take each fillet, brush the butter, or margarine on all sides. Now, take your fillets and roll them in your cracker mixture, covering each one completely. Now lay foil to cover the tray of the toaster oven and bake. It should take around 15 minutes or until the fish flakes easily when poked with a fork. This easy and fast meal can also be used at campsites. Just prepare the same, use foil except fold up over the fillets and set on top of the campfire.

[eShirl]

1. We had some of that a couple months ago and thought it was haddock, hake or something...

made some fish chowder of the frozen filets, and didn't learn until a few days later it was some kind of ocean catfish, IIRC. It's a good chowder fish, if you're into that sort of thing.