Japanese Fish Fry

[Team Temptation]

Low Sodium Soy or Ponzu Sauce
(3)Limes
Garlic Powder (to Taste)
White Vinegar (Table spoon)
Fish Cubed into 1 or 2 inch chunks


Great for dockside as you can make the marinade before hand and save the rest for another day.



Mix all the ingredients above (minus fish) in a non reactive bowl(we use tuperware) then cool to let flavors mix.

No need to preseason fish, fry until cooked then dip in mixture for a few seconds while fish is still hot. Transfer to another bowl. Crack open an ice cold Kalik and enjoy. Works great with chicken wings also.



A

[RiskTaker]

Team temptation:

Thanks for sharing your recipe. Will have to give it a try with the next batch of fried fish.

Since you mentioned Japanese fish fry, we may as well share one way to fry your fish. I had never fried fish with Panko before, until the recent Elbow Cay trip with Bajakian. There, he enlightened me to the world of using Panko for frying fish. Now I am hooked on fried fish even more so than before.

I just did a batch on my own last night using some freshly caught Silk snapper: here is how I did it.

Ingredient list first:

Boneless fish fillets (for snapper fillets, 2x3" pieces works nice for dipping)
All purpose flour
Container of egg beaters (most convenient method)
Panko (Japanese style bread crumbs)
1 gallon peanut oil (can be used multiple times)
An Oil thermometer is recommended to meter the oil temperature
Salt/pepper (Optional to taste)

Prepare your fryer. For home cooking I use a cast iron skillet as it takes less than 1 gallon of oil to achieve a deep fry. Fill 3/4 with peanut oil and attach the thermometer to the side so it does not touch the bottom of the pan. Start heating your oil on a low setting.

Form an assembly line:
Station 1 - plate of prepped fish fillets
Station 2 - plate with a ziplock bag containing a cup of all purpose flour
Station 3 - plate with about 1/4" of egg beaters
Station 4 - plate with Panko
Station 5 - plate to stage the battered fish awaiting the fryer
Station 6 - plate lined with a paper towel to receive the golden fish masterpieces you will have ready in just a few minutes.

You can throw several pieces of fish into the bag of flour at a time, coat with flour, then process one piece at a time. Get both sides wet with the egg mix and move to the Panko plate. Flip or hand sprinkle the panko crumbs for an even coating, then place on the staging plate (5). Repeat until your first wave of fish is all coated (whatever you will cook in the next 5-12 minutes).

Get your oil hot to a temperature of 360 F. Don't let your oil over heat, by backing off heat if it is to temperature ahead of time. Increase the heat as you start to gently add the fish into the hot oil. (For my cast iron skillet, I will do 4-5 pieces at a time, just so you don't over crowd in the oil, thicker pieces go in first.)

Fry the fish for 2 - 3 minutes. After two minutes you can probably back off the heat if it is starting to creep above 350 again. Thinner pieces are probably ready in 2 minutes. Take the thicker pieces out last. 3 minutes and the batch should be done. Repeat as before: increase heat as you start and reduce heat as frying is near completion.

You can cover the golden browned fish with a paper towel and a ceramic plate for a few minutes as you complete the rest of the batch, or serve up as you go for the crunchiest results. Ya Mon! these are some pretty tasty vittles.

Optional: you may prefer more salt, so you can salt/or pepper the fish before flour coating, or after frying. I suggest you start with no salt at first then make some gradual adjustments as you gain experience with the recipe. The fried fish dipping sauce recipe above has salt in it so it may be fine, without any more added.

WARNING: This recipe provides some very good fried fish, so beware in case you are trying to avoid too much fried foods in your diet.

Here is another dipping recipe that I like, whether it is fried or saute`d: it is even good to eat all by itself.

Essentially this is a primitive tarter sauce: but more onion and less mayo.

Ingredients:
1-2 sweet onions
3-4 limes
unsweetened relish or sweet (optional)
Mayonnaise

Dice the onion into small pieces (crude small pieces is acceptable). Place in a plastic or stainless bowl. Add in the juice of the squeezed limes. Place in the refrigerator for a while. Essentially you are quick pickling the onions. When ready to serve up, drain some of the lime juice if the onions are swimming in it. Add in a tablespoon of relish per onion and a tablespoon of Mayo. I prefer mine to be on the juicy side and not swimming in Mayonnaise. This stuff is so good you can eat it all by itself.

Fork it onto a piece of fish as you eat, and you may say that it tastes mighty fine! This makes the fish taste good even if you are doing a very low salt fish recipe.

Enjoy !

[ausum]

Use risk takers recipet just change the bread crumbs to crushed macadamia nuts and you really have something..Trey it and see--AuSUM

[PUMPKIN]

We kill a lot of Alaskan halibut and like to switch out the panko for small chopped conconut shavings (go with the Publix variety and then simply chop up into smaller shavings). Very, very yummy.....although since I traveled with the FM crew and tried Richard's panko masterpiece, I must admit, I have recently tried the panko recipe on some fresh red grouper yesterday and it was the bomb.....

Originally Posted by ausum

Use risk takers recipet just change the bread crumbs to crushed macadamia nuts and you really have something..Trey it and see--AuSUM

[DonK]

When I had a restaurant, I toyed with using crushed plantain chips with the same technique as the panko. goes well with a mango salsa

[RiskTaker]

Originally Posted by DonK

When I had a restaurant, I toyed with using crushed plantain chips with the same technique as the panko. goes well with a mango salsa

Since you are getting into Carribean style cooking, we may as well mention Yucca crusted dolphin. It probably goes well with other white fish too.

I have never tried it a home yet, but if you are curious to see how that tastes, you can order it a Calypso Restaurant in Pompano (Cypress Road).

[cappy]

Great recipe risk taker, however I burnt my fingers because you did not include a staion for for a spatula.

[RiskTaker]

Originally Posted by cappy

Great recipe risk taker, however I burnt my fingers because you did not include a staion for for a spatula.

That's not my problem. For clean-up and utensils: you will just have to figure out by yourself. But I get the joke.

More detailed instructions and color illustrations are clearly shown in the Pamphlet: "Zen and the Art of Panko Fish Frying" although I think they use a Wok style strainer Laddle in their example.