Sunday, February 21, 2010

Recipe: White Fish Fingers

In the same vein as my much-loved Fried Chicken Fingers, I decided to give the almond flour treatment to some slender white fish fillets (I can't remember the type of fish, bad me!), bought from the organic butcher up the road, who also sells wild-caught salmon and other fish on Wednesdays. I'm not a fan of white fish, or any fish that tastes 'fishy', if you know what I mean. Solution? Herbs, spices, and coconut oil!

Ingredients:

4 white fish fillets (around 150g per serving)
1 cup almond flour
2 eggs
1 or 2T dried herbs - thyme, basil, parsley, etc
2t cumin
1t garlic powder
Coconut oil, lard or butter


Method:

1. In a shallow bowl, combine almond flour, herbs & spices.

2. In a medium bowl, beat eggs until combined well.

3. One at a time, dip fish fillets into egg mixture, and roll in almond flour coating.

4. When all fillets are coated, heat oil/fat/butter in a large frying pan.

5. When oil is hot, gently place fillets in a single layer in the pan. Let sizzle until crust begins to brown and meat begins to become opaque.

6. Turn fillets carefully, and sizzle until crust is golden. Test to ensure meat is cooked thoroughly by slicing the end off one fillet.


Serve fillets immediately, with fresh vegetables and Lemon & Macadamia Mayo. If you like your root veggies, you could also make fries - et voila, the perfect Paleo replacement for Fish 'n' Chips!

Update (22 Feb) - also works on larger fillets! Check out the gorgeous rockling I prepared and scoffed down for tonight's dinner:


It requires care and precise spatula work to handle a 200g fillet of this shape and coating, but so long as you keep the amount of frying fat to a shallow depth, and flip way from yourself, you should do fine! The heat doesn't need to be terribly high either - no need to raise the fat to a spitting heat. Enjoy!

6 comments:

Lisa said...

Looks delicious! I've made a similar recipe using catfish with the egg wash and almond flour and spices, but baking it in the oven instead of frying (less mess that way). Still tastes amazing though.

Jezwyn said...

I've tried baking coated meats before, but they never end up as tasty & crunchy as fried ones. What's the point of adding in the carbs if you end up missing out on the crispness?

How are you frying them so as to end up with with a bunch of mess? I find it easier to rinse out a frying pan than scrub a baking tray (or be wasteful and use a liner). If you don't let the fat reach spitting point, or use a spatter shield, everything's contained within the pan. I suppose it all comes down to practice, like everything culinary...

Deanna said...

I am a fish lover of all kinds. I haven't tried mine fried in almond flour, but I've used dried coconut and fried it up in coconut oil. Yum! I also made "popcorn shrimp" that way.

Jezwyn said...

Sounds good (even though I roll my eyes at the need to separate and recombine the coconut fibre and fats to get it to do what we want - seems so illogical and Neolithic!) :)

I'm planning to try a prawn ball kind of appetiser for my party - I wonder if they may be similar to your popcorn shrimp concoction... We shall see! :)

Ben said...

Jezwyn,

What kind of almond flour do you use? Here in Texas, the cheapest kind I can get is almond "meal" ($4 a pound). It's not as fine as flour, so it doesn't create such a comprehensive coating.

David Wood said...

This has become a firm favourite with us recently - thanks very much indeed for the recipe!