The Crispiest Batter

Well, compared to last night's meal, this was a piece of cake! And thank goodness for that, because while I may have the week off from work for a little "stay-cation," it's not at all what you think! We have a new 8-week old puppy, and we are using this week to bond with her. Her name is Oia (pronounced Ee-Ah) and she is most definitely the cutest thing I've ever seen. She's a lot of work though! It's a wonder I've found time to cook dinners! That lasagna came in very handy for our lunch today!

This easy recipe was quite welcome this evening! Easy but DELICIOUS! This recipe is for Italian Style Fish with the Crispiest Batter, and I served an Amalfi salad alongside it. This was a refreshing yet comforting meal that went perfectly with a cold beer after a long day of running around with an energetic bundle of fur!

For my mise en place, I gathered a cod fillet, some sea salt, lemon juice and zest, sunflower oil, a couple of egg yolks, flour, olive oil, some "fizzy water," and some lemon halves for serving.



The first step was to season the cod with lots of salt and some lemon juice. You can be generous with the salt because we're going to use it to get the moisture out of the fish. Once I massaged the salt and lemon juice into the fillet, I put it on a plate and placed it in the fridge for half an hour. When I pulled the fish out of the fridge, there was a lot of liquid on the plate that I poured off, and dried the fillet with some paper towels.

While the fish rested, I made my Amalfi Salad (with radishes, red onion, cucumber, fennel, orange slices and a nice red wine vinaigrette) and then went to work on the batter for the fish. I put the flour, egg yolks, lemon zest and a glug of olive oil into a bowl and stirred it all up. Once that's blended, start pouring the "fizzy water" into the mixture slowly, stirring to combine as you pour. Once the batter has a custard-y consistency, and coats the back of a spoon, you're ready to go!



Once my fillet was ready, and dried, I cut it into four smaller pieces and coated them in flour. We coat the fish in flour before the batter so that the batter has something to stick to!



Meanwhile, I was heating sunflower oil in a cast iron pan. I added a small piece of potato to the oil, and as it came to the right temperature, the potato started to fry.



Once the oil was the right temperature, I placed each piece of the cod fillet into the batter and then used the sides of the bowl to smooth out the layer of batter so it didn't get clumpy. As I coated each piece, I placed them in the oil for about 4 minutes, until they are golden and crispy!



Once the four minutes were up, I drained the crispy fish on some paper towels, and plated them along with some of the Amalfi Salad. The batter was very reminiscent of tempura and it really was "the crispiest!"