Light, Crispy Battered Fish Recipe

RECIPE FORUM Recipe Exchange
1

Hi Guys

Recently I went on a holiday and tasted the best fish I’ve ever had.

Everything about that fish was just Yum. To start with, it was a light and crispy battered hake

The batter was tasty but not too distinct that it becomes noticed, and just right to complement the fish.

The fish they used was Hake, and generally I have a problem with hake.

The black lining underneath the fish is not very tasty. It has a very salty and this may sound ironical but it has a strong fishy taste if you know what I mean. I never eat fish that has a too distinct salty fishy taste. The black lining underneath this fish in particular was crispy with no taste at all. It sort of blended in with the batter.

This fish was also absolutely white inside which I assume is very fresh fish or could you correct me if I’m wrong. Also, the fish was just flaking into pieces as we were breaking it of like how cloves come of a whole garlic.

Once I had fish at a restaurant, and the fish was greyish in colour and had a terrible fishy salty taste which I don’t like as I mentioned above. It was also very mushy and not flakey like how I mentioned above.

Never the less I have a few questions for you guys so I may learn from you how to make the perfect fish.

  1. First and foremost, what the best recipe to make a delicious Light n Crispy Battered Hake Fish?

  2. Secondly, with regards to the black lining underneath the fish, are there any tips or tricks so that it becomes crispy and does not give of any taste.

  3. How can I make sure that the fish I am buying is indeed fresh and not frozen for months?

  4. I have come across a few recipe’s and found that most call for beer. I’d like to use some other substitute other than beer.

. I read somewhere that I could use ginger ale which we call ginger beer. Please advice me?

  1. Does my description of the fish above being white, flakey and not “salty fishy” in taste have anything to do with freshness or is there some trick to this?

  2. Lastly, when I’m ready to make the fish, I’m sure I would need to ensure the fish is well defrosted before use. What tips and suggestions can you provide, e.g should I leave the fish in the fridge the night before so it defrosts just in time for dinner or is there some other method?

I look forward to hearing from you and if there’s any other tips you can provide to make this fish the tastiest I’ve ever had, feel free.
I’ve never made fish in my life so want to make sure its a successfull attempt.

Thanks

Regards

12

In the lake area north of Chicago Friday All you can eat fish fries are popular in many bars. One place I particularly liked has the lightest coating of batter. I asked the waitress how they got the coating so thin and light. She told me they brush the batter on rather than dipping it. It works well.

13

If you like fish this is the one for you. Tasty, filling and reasonably healthy. Most of all delicious .
Fish Chowder
Ingredients

* SMOKED HADDOCK
*  raw prawns
*  potatoes
*  assorted shellfish
*  chicken/fish stock
*  parsley
*  lemon
*  milk
*  cream
*  shallotts
*  butter
*  chopped smoked bacon

Method

* Chop shallotts and 2-3 rashers of smoked bacon and dice potatoes. Fry ingredients in knob of melted butter for 5 minutes. Sit haddock portions on top add a half pint of chicken or fish stock(made with stock cube and water)Add quarter pint milk and quarter pint cream. Poach for 10 minutes with lid on. Add prawns and any other assorted shellfish, sueeze of lemon and 2 tsps of parsley poach with lid on for a further 10 minutes. Serve with crusty bread
14

P.S: I know this thread is long but please read all of it, I’ve detailed quite a few things.

Hi Guys and especially Kitchen Witch.

Wow! This reply is far expired since first posting on this forum but here’s what held me back.

After reading all the posts and the invaluable tips that kitchenwitch and everyone else provided, I embarked on the journey to make the best fish suited to my palate.

I searched around the area for some good fish mongers and found 1 that was reputable. I made my way there last on the day of shopping and asked the assistant for fresh Hake Fish. She pointed me to the spot where they keep it and the fish I found it had all characteristics of that which Kitchenwitch pointed out I should look for.

After finding the right size, I headed straight home which is about 10 minutes from the fish monger. I put the fish straight into my bottom drawer of the fridge packed with ice and was only going to use it about 6 hours later.

The time came to make supper and I whipped together the batter - I can’t remember exactly which recipe I used but it was with Ginger Beer as the liquid - I can’t remember using anything out of the ordinary except flour, salt and maybe an egg.

Batter was ready, oil was heated to 190 degrees Celsius and the fish was taken out the fridge, packaging was opened and the fish was quickly rinsed under cold water, patted dry with a paper towel then dipped into the batter and dropped straight into my deep fryer.

It was fried for about 8 to 10 minutes and put in the oven while the chips was being fried. Probably stayed in the oven for about 3 to 5 minutes on the lowest temp just to keep it warm. Up to this point, I knew I was heading the right way but then came the final test of all - Tasting.

I was excited, it looked good, the batter not a golden color like how I would have liked it, a little browner than that. I broke into the first piece and then the disappointment set in. The batter created what I would best describe as, a pocket around the fish. It didn’t stick to the fish and as for the fish itself, it wasn’t flaking as I would have expected it to - it was slightly on the mushy side but not too mushy.
The taste of the batter was a little on the sweet side, probably due to the ginger beer.

I was so disappointed and disheartened that I didn’t have the enthusiasm to try this again - I just gave up then and there - fish was not a dish for me to prepare

Until I ate at a restaurant recently and that brought back all sorts of memories - the fish at this place was good and I thought to my self I can do this - I’ve always loved to duplicate restaurant recipe’s - it’s the challenge that makes me do it.

Just a little about the restaurant I ate at last, the fish was grilled not fried, it was battered but over it was thrown a Lemon Butter Sauce as they call it. To be honest, it wasn’t as good as the place that initiated this topic and I can’t really say if the fish was tasty because the sauce camouflages any bad flavor I would think but overall it was nice and I enjoyed it. The skin of the fish was very crispy which was also nice. I’d like to take a stab at something like this as well but I guess grilling is different and you can’t use batter because it will stick to the pan so there’s definitely a different method and recipe. As for the sauce, it was like a white sauce with butter and a dash of lemon and some herbs - doubt it was a roux because the sauce stayed runny till the end and a roux thickens quickly if left for a while - probably fresh cream in my opinion. If you have tips on how to duplicate a fish grilled and topped with sauce in this way, please let me know - I’m gonna add this to my to do list

Anyways this is the report back on the little setback (yes, I now see it as a little setback, I over reacted at the time) and hopefully you guys can spot my mistake and help me improve.

On my next attempt, I don’t plan to make this for any main meals like lunch or supper but rather do a trial and error run with different recipes and methods until I perfect it. I would take a piece of hake, separate it into smaller pieces and try a different recipe and method on each piece to see what works best for me.

The fish itself on my last attempt was tasty though, not stale and thankfully the wife enjoyed it but I’d like to make the batter stick to it better so when you break into it, a piece of fish breaks with the batter, not the other way around where the batter breaks separately from the fish.

I look forward to hearing from you guys and thank you again for the invaluable tips, Kitchenwitch.

Regards
Cinnam

16

Hi KW

I’m sorry that you feel I’ve blamed anyone for my unsuccessful attempt.

I’ve read my previous post and re-read it to see where I’ve even given the slightest inclination that you or anyone else here that has helped out is to blame. On the contrary, I’ve mentioned numerous times in the previous post on how invaluable your advice has been - and by invaluable please understand that you can’t put a price tag to it. Its my first time working with fish in my life so I didn’t know what to look for or what to expect but you’ve given so much advice that it was a breeze to find the right product.

Failure is all part of learning in my opinion and yes I was disheartened by my attempt and at the time I just decided to not pursue seafood again but I’ve built up the momentum to try again so I don’t see anything wrong in that neither do I hold you or anyone else responsible for that.

If I was blaming anyone, why would I come back posting my failure yet so ironically ask for help - that doesn’t make sense.

Never the less, I still commend you for the time you take out to respond to the many people that request assistance - this is a public forum and I’m sure you not remunerated for your assistance so it’s pure love for food that you do this I guess.

If you are able to assist, I would appreciate it and if you can’t I can’t force you - I still appreciate whatever info you’ve provided so far.

Thanks
Regards
Cinnam

19

No problem at all.
I’m sure that tea is good stuff.

It’ll be a pleasure to share the recipe if I remembered it - but going forward I’m gonna start fresh with a basic recipe and build from there - I will post my results immediately after my next attempt together with recipe as well.

Thanks
Cinnam

21

When I lived in Chicago we used to go up to Lake County for Friday night fish fry, usually in taverns. They were all you can eat lake perch, fries and cole slaw dinners. The batter was very light. I asked the waitress how they got the batter so light and she told me they brush the batter on the fish before deep frying it. I have tried it and it works well. Now, if I could only get lake perch here!

22

Dear KitchenWitch

I trust you are well. I haven’t had the chance to experiment after we last chatted but this last weekend I had some free time to test out the recipes.

I’m glad to announce I have had some good results this time and there’s much progress indeed.

So to start with, I did the battered fish. As I planned to do so before, I made very little batter just for small pieces of fish so I don’t waste too much batter and too much fish.
Surprisingly, the first piece came out perfectly.

Here are my experiments explained.

Recipe
Flour - 3 1/4tsp
Sprite Zero - 1 1/2 tsp
Milk - 1/4tsp
Baking Powder - 1/4tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Fish - 12Gram

  1. Put flour in freezer 20 mins before using
  2. Kept liquids very cold
  3. Mixed dry ingredients except flour
  4. Heated oil to 185C
  5. Quickly mixed flour into dry ingredients and then added liquids. Battered fish piece then fried till golden brown.

Comments on the above recipe.

  1. Batter was light and crispy just how I wanted it, so 9 out of 10 for texture.
  2. Batter held on very well - did not fall apart in oil and stuck onto fish very well especially the skin of the fish.
  3. Batter had a very slight burned taste. I think burned is a bit of a strong word so it was a little bit overdone but that’s probably due to the oil temp varying because I had used the stove to heat my oil.
  4. I thawed the fish out in the fridge over night and it was flaking beautifully after it was fried. Not mushy like the last time.

For my next attempt, I’d like to improve the following.

  1. Add a bit more flavour to the batter, Now that I have the texture more or less right. Everywhere I read says to use beer. I don’t want to use beer hence you’ll notice I tried sprite zero. Please give me an alternative to beer that would give a similar taste as beer batter - anything that’s not alcoholic at all eventhough I know it burns off, I can’t use it.

  2. I used Hake (White Fish) and I know white fish doesn’t have much flavour but is there any way to improve that?

I then took a stab at making a lemon butter sauce to pour over the fish.

Recipe
Salted Butter - 2tsp
Fresh Cream - 1 1/4tsp
Garlic - 1/8tsp
Lemon Juice - 1/8tsp
Mixed Hebs dry- 1/8tsp
Aromat - Pinch
Peri Peri Spice- Pinch
Salt - Pinch
Green Chilli - 1/8tsp
Red Chilli - 1/8tsp
Milk - 1tsp

  1. Butter melted on low heat just till it turned liquidy but not runny.
  2. Fresh Cream added to butter on low and whisked together
  3. Hebs, aromats, salt and chilli’s added to above mixture
  4. All simmered on heat setting 3 - highest heat setting on my stove is 6
  5. After a while, butter and cream became too thick and then began to seperate - butter became like an oily substance if that makes any sense so added milk and continued whisking with fork intermittently putting it on heat for few minute to keep the sauce runny to make whisking easier. Eventually mixture creamed up a little but still yellowy oily substance could be seen.
  6. Added garlic and whisked into mixture.
  7. Added lemon juice right before serving sauce over fish.

Again you can see on the above recipe, I have made a small amount just to test.

Comments on above

  1. Sauce tasted nice but was very close to alfredo sauce that we normally make - looking for something different
  2. The spice was a little over powering and masked the taste of the sauce itself.
  3. I couldn’t get much of a lemon tinge in the sauce.
  4. The sauce once poured over the fish seperated instantly and was not creamy. The layer of yellow oil substance ran off the fish and a little bit of white cream stayed. Most of the white cream held the spices whilst the yellowy oil substance didn’t hold much spice. I think the butter melted to a point where it became like oil and just couldn’t blend back with the fresh cream to make it 1 creamy sauce.

I’d like to improve the ffg.

  1. Get everything to blend into 1 creamy sauce that’s like the consistancy of melted ice cream.
  2. I’m looking for a lemon butter flavour with hint of other spice but not overpowering the sauce itself.

I hope the above is detailed enough for you to spot my errors and help me improve my recipe.
Thank you again for all your assistance so far - its been a great help indeed and not forgetting everyone else that took interest in this thread.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks
Cinnam

24

The trick to making a light crispy batter for fish is simple. First coat the fish in your flour or cornmeal mixture (whichever you prefer, also you can use half flour and half cornmeal), then dip in buttermilk and then coat with the mixture again. You can use beaten eggs in lieu of buttermilk, but I personally prefer buttermilk. Most recipes show to dip the fish in the buttermilk or egg and then coat with your mixture. When you do like I suggest and coat with mixture first that creates the extra crispy coating which will crunch when you take a bite.

BTW you need to have some light and fluffy hushpuppies. Hushpuppies is a southern thing and they are delicious.

1 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/3 cup minced onion
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup milk

Mix cornmeal with baking powder, salt, pepper, and onion. Mix
egg with milk and whisk into cornmeal. Spoon hush puppies into
hot oil and fry until golden brown

25

Hi Kitchenwitch

Thank you so much for the recipes you have provided. I will surely give them a try.

I notice the first recipe calls for eggs. I actually ate once at a restaurant that served lemon butter sauce over hake and their sauce was very yellow. When the meal first comes, the sauce is a medium thick consistancy but once it cools it becomes a little thicker. I always wondered how they got the yellow colour to the sauce cause whenever I made sauces, its always white but I guess that what the egg does - maybe you can comment.

I guess I can identify a few mistakes from the advice you have given.

  1. I did not use freshly bought cream, the cream was bought a few weeks back and frozen. I thawed it out in the fridge and used it thereafter. I’ve done this before and the sauce never broke down so thought it would be ok.

  2. The quantity of the sauce was very little as u can see so possible everything heated so fast that it coagulated.

I will try and avoid this in future to see how it goes. Just curious to know how do restaurants keep their sauces warm at all times without it giving them problems. Like this 1 restaurant I went to, we could see the kitchen from where we were sitting and the chef had the sauce in what looked like a pot and he just scooped up it up in a ladle and threw it over my fish.

Lastly, any tips on how to improve my fish even further?

Thanks
Regards
Cinnam