Fried Fish New Orleans

Submitted by dicentra

"The Frugal Gourmet Cooks With Wine – Jeff Smith – Copyright 1986"

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 lbs red snapper, cut into 1 1/2 inch squares
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3⁄4 cup water
• 3⁄4 cup flour
• 1⁄4 cup cornstarch
• 1⁄4 teaspoon baking powder
• Tabasco sauce
• salt and pepper
• oil (for frying)

directions

1. Place the fish and Tabasco in a stainless steel bowl. Let marinate for 20 minutes.
2. Mix the batter by whipping the eggs, adding the water.
3. Blend the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and pepper together in a dry bowl.
4. Gently stir this into the egg mixture. Do not try and get out all the lumps and do not overmix.
5. Heat 4 cups of oil to 375-400*.
6. Dip the marinated fish squares into the batter and then deep fry until brown, about 4 minutes.

Reviews

[LMorland]

I've been making this recipe for around 20 years -- it's reliable, tasty and fun! I must admit that I made a mistake tonight, though: because I was already using my hand-held blender (with whisk attachment) I used it to bring the dry and wet ingredients together. A mistake! As Jeff writes, you should blend them together very gently, until they just come together (lumps are fine). The fish came out well, but sadly not as light and fluffy as usual. <br/><br/>Jeff's comments above the recipe are charming, as I recall from the book (which I lent to a friend years ago): He wrote something like "As a child of the Pacific Northwest, I would never, EVER fry fish... However, once I was in New Orleans and had some fish that tasted something like this. Here is how they made it."