Fried fish (forkbeard!)
I very rarely fry fish, but our FishBox contained a couple of big fillets of Forkbeard so I thought I’d give it a go. I used a very thin tempura like batter.
Homemade tartar sauce is a different beast to the stuff in a jar (which I’m also partial to), and well worth the (pretty slim) effort.
You will need
Tartar sauce
- A desert spoonful of capers and another of their juice
- About the same amount of small gherkins (cornichons), finely chopped
- A small bunch (palm of your hand) of flat parsley
- A desert spoonful of malt vinegar
- A good pinch of sea salt
- As much mayonnaise as you like. I just use enough to bind it
The fried dish
- Enough oil to fill a flat bottomed pan to a depth of about 1cm
- A couple of tablespoons of self-raising flour
- Soda water
- A good pinch of fine salt
- A really good grind of black pepper
Do
- Mash the tartar ingredients, without the mayonnaise, until it’s as chunky as you’d like, then stir in the mayo and set aside.
- Cut the fish into pieces if you need to so that it can sit into the pan
- Put the oil in a pan on a high heat, keep an eye on it
- Whisk up flour, salt, pepper and enough soda water to make a thin batter (like paint for the wall)
- To test if the oil is hot enough, dribble a little batter in, it should sizzle quickly. The oil should not be smoking.
- Dip pieces of fish into the batter, covering both sides, hold to drip off the excess and then add to to the pan. I put them in skin side down first because when I did it skin side up (as every blog and book tells you to do), they curled up which was frustrating
- Cook for a couple of minutes on either side, lifting them off to a warm plate with a couple of layers of kitchen roll, holding them up to drip off the excess oil.
- Serve. We had a big salad and a huge dollop of the tartar sauce
Result
Forkbeard is a thick meaty fish with a lovely fresh “seaside” smell to it. It breaks away in big flakes and the batter is crispy enough to snap, so thin it doesn’t act as a sponge for the oil.
Chunky tartar is sharp, savoury and varies with every bite.
