Cooking with LSP? That's a great idea. Look, enough of your sarcasm, here's how it's done. Get on a boat and catch some Striper, then watch in awe as your Guide fillets the fish in a fraction of the time it'd take you. Guide magic, but hey, it's his job. Next step?
Take the fillets back home and put 'em in the fridge, only to be taken out later in the day. Behold their piscine glory and as you do, pour an inch or two of oil into some heavy metal (dutch oven), put this on medium/high heat along with a candy thermometer. As the oil does its thing, wash the fish, salt and pepper it, and leave it on a cutting board while you prepare the batter. This is easy.
Put 1 cup of flour into a mixing bowl, glass or plastic, your call. I use glass, not being Eastern European. Then add 1 teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt, some cracked pepper and whisk it about.
Job well done, pour in a bottle of beer or soda water and stir it up. The mixture should end up like thinnish pancake batter. But that's not all, put half a cup of flour in a bowl next to the batter, you'll use this to dredge the fish.
Done? Salute your endeavor with a glass of wine or something else, your call, no rule, but don't take too long, there's oil to be watched. So glance over at your heavy metal and check the oil's temperature. It should be between 365-70 degrees.
This is important. If the oil's too hot it'll ignite and destroy your kitchen like some kind of air bomb, you don't want that. If it's not, whatever's being fried will sit in the unpleasant oil and become a greasy mess. So, make sure it's hot, I recommend 370*, this will fry your fish without it becoming a grease nightmare.
This achieved, take a piece of fish, dredge it in flour, coat it in batter and place it in the heavy metal. Watch it boil and fry as you add more fillets to the cauldron. You'll know when they're done, crispy, golden brown awesomeness.
And just for kicks you can do the same thing for a side, I went down the onion ring route, you may choose differently, your choice.
Then fall upon your scoff, like a warrior,
LSP
Not a fish person but I would scarf that!
ReplyDeleteWSF, I fell upon it like a fury!
ReplyDeleteSo tasty.
Reminds me of the fish dinners my Mom would make when Dad and I got back from fishing. One of the local Catholic Churches was renown for their Friday fish dinners. Walleye Pike, homemade french fries and/or onion rings, and homemade coleslaw completed the take-out menu.
ReplyDeleteYes! Looks so darn good. Amazing job, LSP.
ReplyDeleteI'm lazy and just buy a beer batter mix and grab an envelope of onion ring batter mix in the produce section for the rings.
One thing I must use is lard for the frying. Lard is magic. It goes in my pie crusts too.
Note: all fish tastes way better when caught from a boat. And then of course beer battered and deep fried. Yes, that's how to do it. I would have thought that monster striper (the one on the left) would have yielded larger filets. Did the guide's knife slip?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds delicious, drjim!
ReplyDeleteAdrienne, thanks for the lard reminder and the plaudit. I hardly ever deep fry but like it when I do. Seems right for fish. And onions, and...
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right, Fredd. The MONSTER produced big fillets, which I cut into manageable chunks. Maybe that was wrong? Hmmm. Still, it was right tasty.
ReplyDelete