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Post by Mars on May 6, 2007 11:02:14 GMT 12.75
Being overloaded with trout at this time I can experiment a little. I want to make fish sticks or planks that are made with batter instead of "dry" ingredients. Any ideas?
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Post by Paws on May 7, 2007 3:37:39 GMT 12.75
I just spent a half hour writing instructions that the computer ate and now I'm pissed. I'll be back when I cool off!!
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Post by Paws on May 7, 2007 4:02:26 GMT 12.75
I'll skip the lecture and just post several recipes. Arthur Treacher's Fish Batter 3 Pounds Fish Fillets 2 Cups All-purpose flour 3 Cups Pancake mix 3 Cups Club soda 1 Tablespoon Onion powder 1 Tablespoon Seasoned salt Dip moistened fish pieces evenly but lightly in the flour. Dust off any excess flour and allow pieces to air dry on waxed paper, about 5 minutes. Whip the pancake mix with the club soda to the consistency of buttermilk- pourable, but not too thin and not too thick. Beat in the onion powder and seasoned salt. Dip floured fillets into batter and drop into 425 oil in heavy saucepan using meat thermometer. Brown about 4 minutes per side. Arrange on cookie sheet in 325 oven until all pieces have been fried. Basic Beer Batter 1 c. flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp paprika 1 egg 1 c. beer Combine all dry ingredients, stir in egg and beer. Add more beer if bater is to thick. Dip fish in bater fry in deep fat until golden brown and crisp Crunchy Batter 2/3 cup flour 3 tablesppons cornstrach 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup ice water Stir first 3 ingredients together in bowl. Beat eggs and ice water in another bowl until blended. Add to flour mixture; stir until just moistened. Batter will be lumpy. Do not stir again. Keep batter cold by placing it in a bowl set in a larger bowl of crushed ice I don't think you will like the trout deep fried as well as cod or cat fish. Best broiled, poached, or baked. Let us know how it turns out. I season my batters and dry ingredients with Old Bay plus cayenne and salt and pepper and garlic. Trout works well with sage too.
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Post by Paws on May 8, 2007 1:11:15 GMT 12.75
Now for the lecture! Batters for Deep Frying: General rules, tips, and techniques should be tucked away for future reference and there will be less failure experienced by listening to what we know for sure works. These may be applied to batters for anything deep fried. The food to be fried: The slection must be fresh, firm and sized to permit complete cooking in just a few minutes. Anything that will fall apart, thus fouling the oil, or can not finish cooking before the batter is browned must be avoided. For your fish Mars, specifically trout, this means sizing the cutlet to less than an inch thick and no larger than say a three inch by five inch portion or about the size of a small-medium hand. Clean and dry the food keepint it refrigerated until ready for the batter. Pat the food with paper towels just before dipping/dredging as a final precaution. Mars the trout is extra double importnat for this step as trout tends to be a bit oily. The oil and fryer: The fryer must be capable of achieving and maintaining constant temperatures of 375 to 400 degrees F and large enough to completely submerge the largest item to be cooked. The oil must be capable of the same temperature s without smoking or flaming. I use peanut and canola oils most often which do the job and do not impart nasty flavors onto my foods. They are both reusable and if strained of food particles may be kept for sefveral weeks refrigerated or covered tightly after cooling. The vessel used needs to be some type of thick and heavy material which will hold heat well after achieveing temperature. This helps retain a uniform temperature and quickly recover lost heat when food is added and cooked. Cast iron, heavy stainless, etc are best suited for this. Most of the electric appliances, Fry Baby, Fry Daddy, etc are too light for effective use. The batter Components: Wet or dry the components are the same and the selections need be based on individual tastes. Changing a recipe slightly can result in a vast change in the final end product. Adding an egg to a batter may result in a course finish becoming a cake like finish. Adding corn starch will produce a a very crisp texture out of a tender dough. Buttermilk adds richness, seltzer water or beer produce very light textures. Dark beers or ales add an interesting flavor and work well for pork and beef fritters and schnitzel cutlets. Lemon/lime flavored seltzers add flavor to fish, shrimp, crab cakes and scallops. And on it goes. Seasonings for the batter should match the seasonings used for the food to continue the flavor throughout the finished product. Seasonings should be added to the food product and the dry ingredients of the batter whether the batter is applied wet or dry. Don't be stingy. Mars for your trout I would use sage, salt and pepper and probably some old bay seasoning. I'd probably make hush puppies or corn fritters seasoned about the same. The components for battering may be combined into a pancake like batter for dipping or spread out in several pans for dredging and building up a batter in layers on the food. Here again, choice and taste are the deciding factors. Combined batters tend to form smooth cakelike crusts while crusts that are built up are highly textured, crisper as a general rule and lend a more rustic appearance. When building up layers remember that "wet sticks to dry and dry sticks to wet!" So begin by dredging in dry seasoned flour, shaking off the excess then into a liquid, then back into the flour or maybe crushed corn flakes, peanuts, bread crumbs, then maybe egg wash, back into something dry..... Get the idea? Frying: Always wear an apron, no loose fiting clothes, and make sure you have a big box of baking soda and a lid big enough to cover the oil container should a fire start. When the oil is at temperature take your battered food and holding one end insert the other into the oil and release. Make sure the food is actually in the oil before releasing to avoid splashes. The food should completely submerge the rise to the top. Allow it to cook until the crust is golden brown and the small bubbles generated when cooking began have slowed or stopped. Do only a few pieces at a time to retain high cooking temperatures and allow the oil to rest and temperature to recover a minut between batches. Remove the fried food and drain it on paper towels adding a sprinkle of aditional seasoning while it is still hot. Test your finished product and make your adjustments as required.
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Post by Toby Benoit on May 8, 2007 6:58:54 GMT 12.75
I use Aunt Jamima's pancake mix with onion powder, black pepper, and a little bit of red pepper. A buddy of mine mixes the batter with beer instead of water and it tastes pretty good too. I don't know about trout, but it's awfully good on bass and catfish filets.
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Post by Toby Benoit on May 8, 2007 7:01:19 GMT 12.75
Pas, I was just thining. How do you think that KFC chicken battered be on fish? It was pretty good on the chicken.
It's over in the Recipe Box, Mars if you wanna take a look at it. It's the original recipe chicken batter, but I bet it'd be as tasty for fish filets.
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Post by Paws on May 8, 2007 9:09:51 GMT 12.75
You know by George that ought to go real well with trout! Hadn't thought of that; great idea!! Mars if you want now you could just freeze those fish up and bring them up to the Ohio GT where we could "Field Test" some batters for you! Tell you who the fish fryer is; old Chuck Fish himself.
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Post by geiyserq on May 9, 2007 3:39:31 GMT 12.75
guys, I dont claim that my taste is the best taste in town, but we have a local Lee's Famous Recipe who takes his chicken batter and applies it to pollock.
It holds together just fine, but the taste? It sucks. The heavy spices in LFR batter are way overpowering for such a delicate fish.
Try it if you want, but dont go head long and ruin a whole batch before you sample a piece or 2.
Personally I like oriental tempura if I'm gonna batter fish.
On the otherhand. I really like Shore Lunch original and I have always just pan fried with it as a coating. However there is a batter recipe I may give a whirl when I get me some nice blugill fillets.
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Post by Paws on May 9, 2007 7:19:35 GMT 12.75
Try to find out what that Lees has in it GQ. I looked back over the KFC recipe and it looks like it ought to work out OK. Pollok would be great in a beer batter without any seasoning at all except maybe a little salt and some malted vinegar dipping sauce.
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Post by geiyserq on May 9, 2007 9:10:45 GMT 12.75
I concur Paws.
I'll see what I cant find out about their batter, though it prolly comes to them in a franchise container. I do know its strong on both salt and black pepper though.
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Post by Paws on May 9, 2007 10:05:56 GMT 12.75
Excess salt will toughen the fish and the black pepper enhances the taste of the salt. Bet a nickel it has MSG in it too if it comes in a commercial preparation and sugar. In the KFC blend the salad dressing and tomato soup both have sugars too but not so heavy on the salts and pepper.
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Post by Toby Benoit on May 9, 2007 10:55:43 GMT 12.75
Awright dammit, I guess I can take one for the team! I'll go fishing tomorrow and if I get lucky on a few bass, I'll do the KFC batter. I'll get a tray of friar legs out of the freezer tonight and if the batter sucks on fish, I'll roll them yard bird legs around in it instead! I'll keep ya posted. Oh damn!!! Why not Pawlclaws own "FLAMING FROG LEGS" batter? Spices might be too much for trout or do you think it'll turn out okay? Ya'll got me wanting to fry stuff and I ain't got no frog legs. I guess I'm gonna have to take the kids gigging!
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Post by Paws on May 9, 2007 22:01:25 GMT 12.75
I think that the batter would be OK but the soak in the heat would really sucketh much! Tell you something I am thinking about when I get my mits on some trout, walleye, or crappie is a roll in some crushed black walnuts after the batter dip.
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Post by Paws on Jun 26, 2007 3:45:53 GMT 12.75
OK Toby, where is that report? ;D I made this discovery lconcerning batters that you might want to put in your notes someplace. Chinese dishes using deep fried and Japanese dishes preparing tempura add the corn starch to beaten egg whites rather than water. Add the seasonings directly to the egg white including the salts. I suspect the air incorporated into the egg white suspends the structure when fried creating the highly pourous and very crisp texture accounting for the crispness and lightness. Try this in your fish, shrimp, clam, scallop; and calamari. Do not recommend for whole chicken pieces though as the chicken needs a good bit of time to fry. ;D
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Post by Toby Benoit on Jun 26, 2007 4:53:53 GMT 12.75
No report 'cause I caught no fish! ;D After that, I plumb forgot about this thread. I'll try to keep it in mind next time I get to do some fishing.
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Post by Mars on Jun 26, 2007 7:30:36 GMT 12.75
This is the link to McCormick's. www.mccormick.com/productlanding.cfmI used their Golden Dipt- Fish 'n Chips batter mix and it was good, though I haven't tried it on the trout yet, just catfish. They have several different kinds like cajun, that I would like to try as well. This is their product list; Breaders & Batters Beer Batter Seafood Batter Mix, Cajun Seafood Fry Mix , Cracker Meal Seafood Fry Mix , Fish 'n Chips Seafood Batter Mix , Fish Fry Seafood Fry Mix , Golden Dipt® All Purpose Batter Mix , Golden Dipt® All Purpose Breading Mix, Golden Dipt® Extra Crispy Chicken Fry Mix , Golden Dipt® Funnel Cake Batter Mix , Golden Dipt® Herbs & Spices Chicken Fry Mix, Golden Dipt® Hot 'n Spicy Chicken Fry Mix, Golden Dipt® Onion Ring Batter Mix , Golden Dipt® Original Homestyle Chicken Fry Mix , Golden Dipt® Oven Easy Garlic & Herb Coating Mix , Golden Dipt® Oven Easy Shrimp & Seafood Coating Mix, Hush Puppy Corn Meal Mix, Oven Easy® Cajun Seafood Coating Mix, Oven Easy® Lemon & Pepper Seafood Coating Mix, Seafood Fry Mix Tempura Seafood Batter Mix
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Post by geiyserq on Jun 26, 2007 7:45:46 GMT 12.75
Mars, My favorite fish breading is Shore Lunch. I get it from Gander Mountain, but i am sure if you are close to a Cabelas, Bass Pro Shops, or any of the bigger outdoor stores you will find it.
They have original and cajun style. I have only used the original, but that's my preference.
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Post by Paws on Jun 26, 2007 7:48:35 GMT 12.75
We'll check those out when Toby catches the fish!
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Post by geiyserq on Jun 26, 2007 7:50:23 GMT 12.75
Geezy Petes! I just realized this was a 2 page thread. I thought I remembered talking about Shore Lunch before. Sorry for repeating myself Mars. Just disreguard. Toby, you werent the only one that forgot!
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Post by Paws on Jun 26, 2007 7:56:03 GMT 12.75
What did I forget? Oh hell, I forget!
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