Sift the flours, salt and sugar
Add the egg yolk and then some beer as needed. Beat 3 minutes to toughen. Let stand 30 mins
Whisk the egg whites till stiff
Beat the batter 1 minute and fold in the egg whites half at a time
Stand 15 minutes.
Cut the fish along the seam lines to make similar size fillets. Some
will be thicker than others. Dry on absorbent paper.
Heat 1.25L of peanut oil to 135 deg in a wok.
Dust the fillets in the flour
Dip into the batter to coat thoroughly.
Use 2 wooden skewers to lift the fillet up and let excess batter
drip off.
Deep fry at 135 deg in a wok for 1 minute, turning.
Set on a rack till cool. 30 minutes or a day in the refrigerator
Deep fry at 180 deg for 2 - 2.5 minutes depending on the thickness
of the fillets.
300g Flake Fillets
100g Self Raising Flour
20g Corn Flour
3g salt
1 egg yolk
125ml Beer (XXXX Bitter) as needed
5g sugar
1 egg white
60g Flour to dust
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Lots of white flesh fish varieties work. All a little different in
taste, texture and fat content. NSW Flake is my favourite. But hard
to get. NZ flake is OK. Basa fillets (from vietnam) are close to
flake without the fat content and they are really economical. Good
fresh fish is expensive.
Flathead and bream are great. If using snapper and larger fish the fillets can be a bit oversized when cooked in batter.
I haven't added much salt to my batter and if you use bitter lager it
doesn't need it.
I like a good beer batter and this one is perfect. Bitter
Lager is the correct beer. Whisking the egg whites separately and
folding in really ups the puff and sponge of this batter. A bit of
sugar makes it brown better.
I was raised in Southern NSW. I knew nothing but local flake as fish
+ chips. Problem is now I can't get it local to me (NZ variety is a
poor substitute), and other fish, while good, is just not good to
me. This coastline is where the very best flake for fish and chips
comes from. Gummey or Wobbegong shark. You need to go to a Fish +
Chip shop in Southern NSW and have the flake. Its really fatty and
flakey like the best salmon. It taste like a mild lobster, scallop,
squid flavour. Nothing like a fish taste or smell. Its Great.
At the 2000 Olympic venues Gummy shark was served as Fish + Chips.
Just perfection. A large loud mouthed American lined up in front of
me and she was disgusted that they were serving shark. The server
insisted, try it you will love it. Her husband made her line up
again for more. They loved it and said so loudly.
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