Battered Fish
White fish fillets dipped in a light beer batter and fried in hot oil for 5 minutes until crisp, golden and puffed.
Photograph credit: Fish and chip by sharonang · Pixabay Content License · Pixabay
Where This Goes Wrong
Keep the batter cold and mix it at the last minute.
Do not overcrowd the pan.
Drain on a rack, not paper.
How to Make Battered Fish
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Pat the fish dry and season. Dust each piece in the 50 g flour. Heat the oil in a deep pan to 180°C / 355°F.
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Mix the 150 g flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the cold sparkling water until just combined.
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Dip the fish in the batter, let the excess drip off, and lower it gently into the oil.
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Fry in 2 batches for 5 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and crisp.
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Drain on a wire rack and serve at once with the lemon wedges.
Why It Works
Cold batter, hot oil. That pairing is the whole of the technique, and it is why a thin, almost lacy crust forms around the fish. The shock of cold batter hitting hot fat makes the water in it flash into steam, which puffs the coating before it has time to turn greasy.
Use chilled sparkling water or lager and mix the batter just before frying. Whisk it only until the lumps disappear, because overmixing develops gluten and makes the batter tough. A little cornflour in the mix gives a crisper, lighter result than plain flour, and baking powder helps it puff.
Dust the fish in flour before it goes into the batter. The dry flour gives the wet batter something to cling to, so it does not slide off in the pan. Shake off any excess.
Heat the oil to 180°C / 355°F and fry the fish in batches of two so the oil temperature holds. The fish is done when the coating is a deep gold and rigid. Drain on a rack, not on kitchen paper, which traps steam against the underside and softens the crust.
After You've Cooked It
Best eaten straight away. Crisp leftovers in a hot oven for 8 minutes.
Serving Battered Fish
- Chips
- Mushy peas
- Tartare sauce
- Malt vinegar
Nutrition per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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