Fish Fry – whats your twist?

Anybody ever try pecan meal?

tartar sauce? Do you guys put steak sauce on your steaks too? What a sin.

This is my favorite way to prepare fish.
1) Bleed your fish
2) DO NOT let your fish touch the slim while cleaning
3) Rinse lightly with water. TIP: If you have to use frozen fish feel free to soak in milk over night.
4) Place breading of choice and fillets into a gallon bag. (press breading onto the wet fillets to create a nice coating)
5) Place breaded fillets straight into a preheated cast iron pan with a half inch of oil. TIP: Make sure the oil is hot enough to brown a fish in 1-2 min to prevent any oil from being soaked into the fish.
6) Fry on each side for a couple minutes until golden brown. These fish will be light, fresh and oil free!

When frying fish, saltine crackers in the food processor. Dip fillets in egg wash, then coat in the finely ground saltines. No need for salt. Tried this a few yrs ago, only way I fry em now.

I coat mine occasionally Denny, try it sometime, its a lighter coating if cornmeal gets kind of heavy. Especially nice on bluegills, crappies and walleyes.

mnrabbit wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
Anyone have a good recipe or tricks to get crispy filets when you bake them?

I dry the thawed fillets with paper towels, then lightly coat them in either Olive Oil or Grapeseed Oil, then put the breading on them. The higher the temp I bake them at, the more they get a somewhat fried taste. I bake them somewhere around 450-475 for about 6-9 minutes on each side, depending on the size/thickness of the fillets.

I believe if you dip the wet filets in corn starch before the oil, or mix some into your breading, it will get extra crispy.

Mix a little mustard in the eggs for dredging.

Denny just seen your answer, better late then never right? I think for like the last 4 or 5 years I like everyone else here has posted their favorite or something new they’ve tried, its soft water season and time for the repost anyway.

Matt Moen, pm sent.

mossydan wrote:

Denny just seen your answer, better late then never right? I think for like the last 4 or 5 years I like everyone else here has posted their favorite or something new they’ve tried, its soft water season and time for the repost anyway.

Yes you are right, I will be tasting every other day, variations on the walleyes starting with next weekend, headed to Oahe. By the way what ever happened to the chatter on that forum?

Louisiana lemon for batter fried in peanut or canola oil. Add crushed kettle chips to batter for extra crunch. Lettuce tartar and a ciabatta roll for a fish sand which.

shore lunch with shredded coconut tossed in mix

Not sure I’ve seen this one yet so I’ll chime in…

Pat fish dry then dredge in plain flour. Goes directly into a egg/milk wash where they soak for a few minutes while I get them all done. Then I use panko bread crumbs… I mix in italian seasoning, granulated garlic, celery salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, sugar, and cayenne pepper… fish gets a good coat of bread crumbs and it sticks really well to the meat. Then I use the really good non-hydrogenated coconut oil for frying…

Serve with a fresh batch of coleslaw on a soft shell taco shell…

I also like Andy’s breading. After frying I like to shread a bit of raw horseradish over the fish.
Tarter sauce: mayo, prepaired horseradich sauce, diced onion and pickels and mustard a bit of worshishire salt and pepper.
No relish to sweat for me.

A great thread going here, I thought I would just add a little general cooking knowledge that I think all of these recopies could benefit from.

#1. Temperature is king for frying fish. Too high of a temperature and the coating will burn before the fish is done, but too low of a temperature and the fish will boil in it’s own liquids and get mushy + soak up too much grease. 350-375 degrees F is a good temp. I generally try to error on the high end before I drop my fillets in so that the reduction in temp leaves me right around that golden zone. A thermometer can be super handy for a few sessions until you get your stove/burner dialed in.

#2. If pan frying, use a good heavy carbon steel or cast iron pan. The reason that the fish usually comes out better in these is because they have a higher heat capacity which will help you to keep the oil at the right cooking temperature when dropping in a few cold fillets at a time. Low cooking temps will result in the fish not frying properly.

#3. Cooking Time: This one depends big time on the thickness of the fillets, but the fish really shouldn’t spend more than just a couple minutes on each side. If you have a big chunk of northern or something that you think isn’t quite done? Pop it into a preheated oven at 350 F for a couple minutes more to cook the internals all the way through.

#4. Oil/Butter: There are a number of different oils that you can try out! Each has it’s own specific smoke point and flavor profiles. I would recommend trying out a few different ones to find your favorite. One thing that I have found to be good is to use a mix of butter AND oil. I try to get a 2-1 or 3-1 ratio of oil to butter. The flavor of browned butter really adds a lot to the final taste in my opinion.

Hope this helps you all get that perfect fillet more often! Happy cooking!

A quick fry recipe…
I use powdered Club crackers after a quick dip in egg beaters. The special “spice” is a Cajun seasoning called “Slap Ya Mama”. A little adds flavor, the more you add, the more heat you get.

Theres a lot of good recipes on here and I thought I’d share another one that we’ve been enjoying lately. It’s basically a coconut shrimp recipe and it’s excellent on panfish. Pat filets dry and dust with flour, dip in egg wash and coat with mixture made of equal parts coconut and panko. It’s a bit time consuming so I try to have them coated before heating the oil. They come out crispy with just a hint of sweetness. Don’t get your oil to hot or the coconut will burn though.

My fiance likes to dip them in a sweet tia chilly and orange marmalade sauce. My preference is ketchup with plenty of Franks mixed in.

We still enjoy beer batter, dry batters and baked fish but this gives us another way to keep things interesting.

I’m a fan of a 50/50 mixture of Cajun shore lunch and regular flavor, with a hint of lawrys…and rolling fillets in it without any egg (more of a dry rub). It’s a lighter batter, and really works well for me. It also is great for fish tacos with a few dabs of tobasco sauce for heat

I tried some new to me ingredients on panfish and was very pleased with the results. First was Ian’s gluten free panko made from rice flour. It was nice and crispy. Staying with the rice theme I used rice bran oil. It has a high smoke point and worked good. I saw a jug of it at Cabela’s and plan to do a turkey. Grocery stores have smaller bottles too. Then I tried mixing wild rice flour with the panko and that was good. It had a nutty flavor. For seasoning I stick with lemon pepper or garlic lemon. Course salt and pepper works every time!

Here is a easy one. Fire pellet grill to 400F. Warm cast iron skillet with One stick of butter. Sprinkle fillets with blacken seasoning or lemon pepper and throw in hot pan. Cook till they curl or flake with a fork. Did this with gills the other night and there was no leftovers.

Fresh walleye so wonderful pan fried in garlic butter with gulf shrimp on a bed of buttery egg noodles. No batter just the walleye and shrimp without any clothes. Nothing but the flesh

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Good info here!
I made some last night in the pan as well, no breading just a couple pads of butter and lemon pepper. If you cook it hot and fast the fillets get a nice crispy sear to them. I enjoy a fresh fry couple times a year but this is so much easier, healthier and just as tasty without all the mess. Serve with some garlic toast and a tangy coleslaw and there are few meals better than I can think of.

Dot’s Pretzel’s makes a breading for fish now, that I will be trying soon. Ben Gilbertson shared it on fb, mixed w/ Panko or Corn Flakes, and sounded good to me!

I cannot stand overly breaded fish so I use shore lunch but I skip the egg and milk, just a plain old dry rub.

#1) Soak fish in milk, pat dry, roll in dry shore lunch fry until golden brown. No tarter sauce needed.

#2) Oak plank on grill. Little garlic and a little butter. No tarter sauce needed

The twist yesterday was sauger, crappie, and a side of…. sheepshead

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Saltine crackers rolled up to the smallest crumbs is my favorite. If cooking for a ton of people Shorelunch Cajun mixed with original. I do like Tapatio hot sauce to dip in.

Grilled and fried with asparagus. Just shore lunch with a bit of seasoning for the fried fish and then salt, pepper and a few spices with olive oil on the grill. I’m hungry now.

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Was in the BWCA with my buddy and we were enjoying some tequila next to the fire getting ready for our fish fry. Had the bright idea of making a tequila batter with Shore Lunch. That night we had the most amazing walleye.

Tried it again when we had not been imbibing and it was borderline edible

Tempura & Beer Batter spritzed with panko after dipping , Peanut oil (350-375 degrees)(thermometer) (cook about 1 minute) smallish fingers, White Vinegar and coarse sea salt to finish. Jalapeno and dill tarter as preferred.