The Basic Technique

• Blackening fish is a relatively straightforward process. First, you brush your fillets with melted butter, then you dredge the buttered fillets in a store-bought or homemade mixture of Cajun-style spices. Heat a heavy, cast-iron skillet over a medium-high burner until it's smoking lightly and nearly red-hot. Only cast skillets can handle the heat, so don't use anything with a nonstick coating. Once the pan is hot, carefully lay your fillets in the pan. They'll billow a startling amount of smoke, but this is normal. After three to four minutes turn the fillets and let them crisp on the second side as well, then serve them. The spices and butter sear to a dark, deeply flavored surface on the fish.

The Original Choice

• The fish chef Prudhomme originally used in his restaurant was redfish, a popular game fish that was inexpensive and readily available at the time. Prudhomme single-handedly changed that, when his blackened redfish became one of the most popular restaurant meals of the 1980s. As demand soared, the cost of redfish skyrocketed and commercial fishermen targeted the species so effectively that it became endangered. Having unintentionally put redfish in danger, Prudhomme made amends by leading chefs to catfish and other sustainably farmed fish. That includes versatile, fast-growing tilapia.

Tilapia

• Tilapia are native to Africa, but their rapid growth and resistance to disease makes them ideal for intensive aquaculture. They're suited for everything from massive commercial production facilities to small-scale pond growth on farms, and can even be grown to market size in a well-maintained home aquarium. Raising tilapia for market is almost as easy as raising carrots or salad greens, so locally grown fillets or whole fish are available in much of the U.S. as an alternative to mass-produced fillets. This ready access keeps prices low, and makes tilapia a good choice for either restaurants or for home cooks.

A Few Tips

• If you want to make blackened tilapia at home, there are a couple of important things to know. First, it's very hard on the pan so don't use the perfectly seasoned skillet you inherited from your grandmother. It's best to keep a separate one for blackened fish. Second, it's a really, really smoky cooking method. Not only that, but the spice-heavy smoke can be lung-searingly intense. Open your windows wide and crank up your vent fan before you start. Taking the battery out of your smoke detector is also a good idea, as long as you remember to put it back when you're done.