(stretching it on the title there, ha!)So for this week we are gonna go a traditional deep fried haddock with a bit of a twist, you guessed it, bacon and cheese!
When dealing with deep fried fish, there are few things you have to consider
1. what kind of fish to use
2. what kind of beer
most fish when used for a beer battered meal consists of one of more of the white fishes. For this particular recipe, we are gonna use haddock, which tend to have a nice subtle favor when mixed with the beer.
Now beer is essential here, you don't want to use some swill you have lying around. I would recommend going for a nice dark beer like Guinness or a stout. The beer adds several components here: flavor, and a leavener, in this case, natural yeast.
beer batter
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (optional: they are also a leavener, 3 leaveners are a bit of overkill, but they lend to a nice crispy fish)
a pitcher of beer
s&p TT
flour for dusting/spices
sift the baking powder in with the flour, in a bowl mix the eggs and some beer, then slowly incorporate dry ingredients into the wet ones, adding more beer. You may not use the entire pitcher, so have a few drinks while your doing this. the batter should have a slightly thick consistency which slowly falls of the spoon. too thin, and the batter will burn before the fish is cooked, too thick and you get a big doughy mess with undercooked fish.
slice the fish on a diagonal, creating two pieces, salt and pepper on each side of the fish, add whatever spices you want at this point as well. I've used Cajun, garlic powder and even lemon pepper, they all add something.
dredge the fish in flour, then place in the batter. hold up fish with long skinny end, and let excess batter drip off, then place slowly in fryer: the edge that went in first will start to float. let go of fish, and use tongs to flip fish every few minutes to ensure fish is cooked. you will notice the batter start to thicken after each flip. fish takes about 3-5 minutes, depending on the size. remove to paper towel. Enjoy with tartar sauce!
the add-ons:
this week Ive taken our beer battered haddock, wrapped them in jalapeno Havarti and bacon, secured it with toothpicks, battered and deep fried. don't forget to remove the tooth picks!
Definitely 10 fries out of ten!
