Hi everyone
This is a lock down home cooked play on Friday night fish and chips.
Beer battered fish
Ingredients:
4 - 5 fillets of fresh firm fish - I love trevally, snapper, tarakihi and blue cod yum yum
3/4 cup of plain flour
1/4 cup of corn flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup or in my case a 330ml bottle of ice cold beer - I used a heineken lager. Dont use a stout it will overpower the fish and darken the batter.
How to:
Pat fish dry using paper towels or a tea towel. I cut in half if larger fillets. I try to keep them a reasonably comparable size as that means they cook more consistently. Season the fillets with salt and pepper before placing in the corn flour below.
Place ¼ cup corn flour in a shallow bowl and coat the fish shaking off any excess flour.
Heat 6cm of oil in a large heavy based pot or in a wok over medium high heat to 190°C. I don't use olive oil I find its not the best for deep frying. I used rice bran oil this time.
Just before cooking, whisk together the flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt. Add very cold beer into the batter and whisk just until incorporated evenly into the flour. Do not over-mix, do not worry about flour lumps. The batter should be fairly thin but coat the back of a spoon. If too thick, add a bit more beer until its the right consistency.
Dunk a piece of fish in the batter, then let the excess drip off very briefly
Carefully lower into oil, one piece at a time. Don't crowd the pot; fry in batches. Fry for 3 minutes, flipping after about 2 minutes, until deep golden.
Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining fish. Serve hot!
If you are doing a big batch of fish then Id suggest a double fry only because with the second fry you can get more fish in and therefore less risk of soggy fish from earlier batches waiting for you to cook it all. If you are going to cook twice this is how Id do it:
a. First cook: Fry fish in batches for 2½ minutes until crispy and golden, but not a deep golden. Drain on paper towels, continue with remaining fish.
b. Final cook: This is to reheat and make it deep golden and crispy. Increase oil temperature to 200°C. Add fish and fry for 1 minute until deep golden. For this second run you can crowd the oil more. Drain and repeat with remaining fish.
Serve all with a good sprinkle of salt and wedges of lemons and my tartare below
Salted lemon tartare
Ingredients:
1/2 rind of salted lemon pith removed and diced. I make my own when the lemon tree goes manic but otherwise you can pick a jar up in the supermarket or specialty food shops.
Half a cup of good mayo. Dont go cheap and nasty as they are often really oily and dont work well with this recipe. I either make my own or I use the best foods brand
1/2 a red onion diced - white onion is fine too
1/2 a capsicum diced - I like red for colour but up to you
A couple of small gherkins rinsed then diced
A tablespoon of rinsed then diced capers
The juice of half a lemon
A handful of fresh italian parsley washed and chopped
A teaspoon of mustard or chunky relish (optional)
Half a lemon rind grated and sprinkle of smoked or plain paprika as garnish
How to:
Add all the ingredients together in a bowl except the garnish. Mix and taste season as required and then chill till fish is ready. When ready top with garnish lemon rind and or paprika and serve.
Enjoy
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