hell-baked catfish

A Japanese delicacy. The recipe below is as decribed to me by a cow-orker, and corroberated by another cow-orker. None of us know the Japanese name for the dish.

You will need

• Saucepan and range
• Deep Fryer
• About 1 liter of Sake
• A solid chunk of tofu
• A small, live catfish

Preparation

1. Pre-heat the deep fryer.
2. Pour the Sake into the saucepan
3. Put the catfish in the saucepan and add heat gradually.
4. As the catfish gets agitated, add the tofu to the Sake in the saucepan. The fish will burrow into the cool chunk of tofu.
5. Once the fish is ensconced in the curd, grab the chunk and drop it in the deep fryer.
6. Cook until done.
7. It was not explicitly explained to me, but I suspect you can make multiple fish in one setting, using the same warm Sake bath.

Because of the exotic materials required and the somewhat tricky preparation, this dish is usually very expensive. The co-worker that explained the dish to me first was served it at a Japanese meal worth ~$1000/plate.