Monday, November 01, 2010

Beer-Batter Fish

Because I lost my mom's recipe and had to call her today to get it, I am posting this online as well as putting the card in my recipe box. Two places to hunt for missing recipes.


Combine:
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

Combine:
2 egg yolks
1/2 can beer (about 2/3 cup)
2 Tbsp oil or melted butter

Stir these together, just till blended.
Let stand an hour or more.

Begin heating frying oil.
Then beat two egg whites.
Fold whites into batter.
Dip fish into batter and deep-fry at 375.

Mmmmmmm.

2 comments:

  1. Susan, can you tell me what the big secret is for using egg whites??? You folded them in right at the end - why? What does it provide to the batter? I have made German Chocolate cake from scratch for years and it also called for folding in egg whites. It's really extra putzy work so please tell me what magic it creates to make the dish more delectable!

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  2. I took a recipe off the internet today that looked similar to what I remembered from Mom's recipe. It didn't turn out the same. There's a crispness and a lightness to the batter done Mom's way.

    As for the beaten egg whites in baking, chemically it must do something for leavening. For example, in angel food cake, the only leavening is the fluffiness of the stiffly-beaten egg whites. In my favorite waffle recipe, you have to beat the egg whites. I learned that if I made a double or triple batch, too often the batter would lose its fluffy airiness when I got 1/2 or 2/3 of the way through the waffle-baking (probably due to too much stirring and dipping); those waffles at the end were harder, stiffer, doughier, instead of lightly crisp.

    I just bought a hand-held egg beater this year. I'd always beaten my egg whites in my Kitchenaid mixer, and it was time-consuming. But when we went from the regular size to a bigger Kitchenaid, the bowl was too big for the whisk to adequately beat the egg whites; they failed every time. Finally I broke down and spent the $5 on a hand-held beater, and it only takes me a minute or two to beat up the whites to a lovely height.

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