Non Greasy Fish and Chips

[ios94]

I attempted deep fried flounder using a batter of beer and flour (Chuck Hughe's recipe), it seems that oil was getting into little air pockets in the batter and made the final product a touch greasy.

I actually removed most of the breading and enjoyed the fish on it's own with just a bit of the batter (less greasy this way).

Any tips on how to avoid this. The recipe mentioned not to mix the beer too much and avoid bubbles in the batter would this be to avoid what happened to me?

Thanks

[jindomommy]

Corn and potato starch are used in tempura. The Chinese use cornstarch and it yields a much lighter texture. I've also read that baking powder or soda makes a difference. Was just in Orlando and the Ravenous Pig had the lightest, crispiest batter ever. It actually cut my tongue!

[scubadoo97]

Lighter batter in which gluten is not formed. Adding a little vodka will help prevent gluten from forming. Use of other flours like rice flour in combination with wheat flour will help as well. 375* F is the temp you want to try to shoot for and maintain.

[greygarious]

Here is a link to the shrimp tempura recipe from ATK. They subbed cornstarch for part of the flour, and for the liquid used seltzer and vodka but beer should function similarly. http://www.americastestkitchen.com/re...

[c oliver]

Love that! Thanks.

[smtucker]

I prefer a lighter tempura-like batter than your beer with flour mixture, but I doubt that this was your sole problem. (With flour as your ingredient, the moment the beer started to hit the flour, you were building gluten which is not a great frying medium.}

More likely, the problem was with the frying. What temperature was your oil when you began frying? How much did the temperature drop and how long did it take to get the oil back up to temperature?

[ios94]

Here's the recipe I used for the batter, he says take the oil to 375. I got it to about 340-350 when I dunked the fish, is 375 too much, the batter cooked really quickly and got really dark (probably also due to the fact that the oil was quite used.

I didn't keep track of the temp the whole way through. I tested one piece of fish on it's own, pulled that one out then dunked 2 at a time. The first one actually came out slightly less greasy than the remaining ones which probably hadn't gone to it's max temp.

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/ontv/hosts/...

[ios94]

Any other suggestions. Thanks

[c oliver]

I'm not exactly sure what you're saying about the first one vs. the remaining ones. I'd guess the first one cooked at a higher temp unless you brought the oil back up to temp. I don't use canola oil so have no opinion on that. I also use 50/50 beer to flour and had a recipe that said the batter can "rest"up to an hour. Sometimes it (and I) do and sometimes not. "Quite used" oil? Maybe that means too used. Too many variables but I think I'd try it again with new oil and pay attention to that oil temp. I drain my fish on paper grocery bags on a baking sheet in a 175 oven so I don't have to rush the batches.
PS to smtucker: Could you share your batter please? I've been wanting to make tempura.

[ios94]

Meaning the first batch vs the remaining batches. The first batch I just dunked 1 piece, then 2 pieces at a time as I wanted to make sure that it came out half decent.

Yes, the oil was very used.

How long do you need to keep it in there, I removed mine after about 90 secs to a minute as the batter was getting some color. The actual fish inside was nicely cooked and tender.

[c oliver]

What *I* meant :) is I'm guessing the oil hadn't gotten back to an acceptable level when you cooked the second batch. My experience is that when the outside looks good, the inside is done.