9 Great Coatings for Fried Foods

We are Up North at the moment and recently ate some of the splendid fish and chips that is rife in the North East,  my real man's piece of haddock was as big as his forearm and it is not a small arm

This got me thinking about various coatings for fried food~ here are nine good ones.

    1.        Seasoned Flour

This is a very light coating which is not suitable for deep frying and is suitable for delicate items. It's just plain flour with a little seasoning. Turn a piece of fish or fish cake or whatever in the flour and it should adhere to quite naturally Shallow fry and it will form a light crust as in these fried green tomatoes. 

 ~   Batters  ~

Pin for later reference!

When applying batter it is a good idea to first give the food a light coating of flour to help it stick.

2.       Flour & Water Batter

This is a light and crispy batter which absorbs little oil.  It is important to cook no further than a  pale ivory colour.  Rest the batter for 30 minutes before using to allow the gluten to relax or will shrink and expose the fish or whatever you have under it.  This makes enough batter to coat 4 x 200g fish for instance.

 

110g self-raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
150 ml water

~   Sift together the flour and salt (plus other seasonings if you wish).
~   Gradually whisk in the water to form a smooth batter.

This is even lighter if made with sparkling water.  Which leads me, quite naturally, to ...

3.      Beer Batter ~ a classic for Fish and Chips

A great tasting light and crispy batter which is a classic for fish 'n' chips.

Replace the water in the above batter with beer, English bitter is usual here but lager style beers work too.

Taking this a step further ...

4.      Yeast Batter

This batter has a pleasant slightly bready taste. 

15ml warm water

1 x 7g sachet easy-blend dried yeast

225g plain flour

½ tsp salt

300ml beer

~   Stir the yeast into the water and set aside somewhere warm for about 10 minutes till all foamy.

~   Stir the salt into the flour and make a well.
~   Put the yeast mixture into the well and then gradually whisk in the beer to make a smooth pancake batter consistency. If too thick add a little water when you run out of beer.
~   Cover and set aside at room temperature till bubbly – about 30 mins.
~   Chill till needed.

5.      Tempura Batter

Very light, good for delicates such as shrimp and vegetables. This batter should be made at the last minute, just before using.

90g plain flour
1 tbsp cornflour
½ tsp salt
200ml sparkling water – as cold as cold can be

~   Sift together the flour, cornflour and salt.
~   Whisk in the water till just combined – a few small lumps are OK!
~   As I said before – use immediately

~   Dip the food to be fried into the batter and then hold aloft to allow excess to drip off.

6.      Cornmeal Batter

This make a pleasant gritty coating with shades of the Deep South so flavour accordingly with Cajun seasoning or, if you can get it, Old Bay Seasoning which is ubiquitous in the States and is especially good with seafood. Failing that a pinch of chilli powder.

80g yellow cornmeal

60g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
½ tsp salt

1 beaten egg

120ml milk

~   Stir together the dry ingredients.
~   Whisk in the wet ingredients to a smooth batter.

~   Dry Coatings   ~

To add a dry coating follow these guidelines ...

~   In addition to the breadcrumbs or other coating have ready a dish of seasoned flour and a bowl of egg beaten with a spoonful or two of water.

~   Make sure the item to be coated is dry.
~   Coat said item in the flour, dip in the beaten egg and then coat with dry coating.

~   Set aside for a few minutes for the coating to set a bit before frying.

An easy way to apply the dry coating is to have the crumbs or cornmeal in a deep straight sided box. Drop the eggy item into it and shake the box to coat.  Lift it out and continue with the next piece.

   7.      Cornmeal Crust

Mix together equal quantities of yellow cornmeal and plain flour together with seasonings; salt, black pepper and perhaps paprika and cayenne to taste. As this is a recipe from the Deep South buttermilk is traditional instead of egg for dipping.

8.      Bread Crumbs

You could use the vibrantly coloured bought in crumbs or alternatively make your own!  You knew I’d say that.

~   Fresh Breadcrumbs – run leftover bread through the food process or hand grate to crumbs.

~   Dry Breadcrumbs - bake leftover bread at 300°F/150ºC/130ºC fan/gas 2 till completely dry. Cool then process or crush to fine crumbs. 

(Incidentally, see here for a great use for breadcrumbs - Pangrattato.)

9.      Japanese Bread Crumbs (Panko)

If you are familiar with this blog you will know that I am very keen indeed on these and use them in all sorts of unusual ways.  They make a lovely thick crunchy coating for fried food - these are shallow fried slices of avocado.

SERIOUS WARNING – if perchance you don’t have a deep fryer and use a saucepan make sure it is a deep one with straight sides and fill it no more than a third. Some people say half full is OK but I don’t believe them!

Of course crispy coatings are a great way to make all sorts of leftovers delicious!

In Other News ...

~   I’m rather proud that "The Leftovers Handbook" and I have been mentioned in the May/June issue of Marks & Spencer’s Magazine thus ... 

... although I really wish they’d got this blog’s name right, added a link and perhaps a picture of my book.  Still buggers can’t be choosers!

Krumplinudli ~ and what fun being Hungarian must be!

~  Menu  ~

Krumplinudli

Spicy Salsa

Glass of Secret Red

Krumplinudli are mashed potato dumplings, traditionally sausage shaped, poached and coated in crunchy buttery breadcrumbs.  My sister and I used to put them on the menu a lot because they sounded funny (and tasted good, of course).

Whilst thinking about leftover mashed potato, as one does, I thought I might try making some for my lunch and, not having made them for 20 or 30 years, thought I’d just check I was on the right lines.  Googling “krumplinudli” brought up lots of pages but most were in Hungarian but it’s OK Google translated them for me and this here are some of the things I have learnt …

“Preparation of monster is actually a simple, all depends on the dose,”

“Do you have to hurry to the pedals between because if you are, you can descend, and the 'difficult to handle will be.”

“Because of the huge, with wooden kitchen table, on which long ago did these things, we rarely see”

“If you have the correct his potatoes, then "only" cooked her to be watching.”

“do not dilute your knife he bb dough”

I could go on – it must be cool living in Hungary!  

So, armed with the above information, I decided to make them up after all …

Krumplinudli

Pin for easy reference
when you have some leftover
mashed potato!

1 medium potato, cooked and mashed with a knob of butter

1 egg

approx 120g flour (or more!)

salt and pepper

more salt

more butter

fresh breadcrumbs

~    Ideally the potatoes should be freshly cooked and mashed but … mine were a day old and also had a carrot mashed in with them!  So I reheated them.

~    Mix in the egg, some seasoning and then the flour.  You are aiming for a soft workable dough.  Add more flour till such a situation is achieved.

~    Roll the dough into snakes and cut into 50mm or so length.

~    Leave on the floured surface to dry for some while (an hour or more, although I just made about 40 minutes).

~    Boil a large pan of salted water, add the nudli to it and cook for about 5 minutes – they may well float to the surface when cooked, also they stop tasting of flour.

~    Have ready a medium hot oven. 

~    Toss your nudli in a little melted butter and then fresh breadcrumbs (guess what I sued – panko of course!) and bake till crisp and golden.

I ate them sprinkled with Parmesan and with some spicy dipping salsa, I think this idea is probably worth playing with; maybe add caramelised onions, or cheese or chopped herbs, or crumbled bacon to the leftover mashed potatoes.

There are nine more good ideas for leftover mashed potatoes alone in leftovers cookbook, Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers, plus other ideas for leftover but not masehd potatoes.

Just think of all the ideas I have come up with for the other 450 or so ingredients in the book.  

Avocado Fritters and a Cà Phê Sữa Nóng!

~  Menu  ~

Panko Crusted Avocado with Spicy Salmon & Roasted Garlic Dip

White Wine Spritzer

Cà Phê Sữa Nóng!

I have just had the most wonderful lunch!  I’m usually pretty good at eating, though I say it myself as shouldn’t, but today was exceptional and totally unexpected. 

We usually take our resident old guy out for fish and chips on a Saturday but the weather being so appalling I decided to stay at home and play with food.

A series of events led up to this delicious meal …

1.     I roasted two fine heads of garlic the other day to top up my supplies.
2.    I had salmon for dinner last night.
3.    We bought a couple of ripe avocados yesterday for just 16p each.  It seems that to get them at the peak of perfection you have to wait till they are past their sell by date which suits me down to the ground, so to speak!  Of course they needed eating up and avocado is not real man food, at least not in our house.  Yesterday I ate avocado on toast with pasta sauce as one does.

Pin so you don't forget!

And so to lunch ...

I puréed the small pieces of salmon leftover from dinner (maybe an ounce or so in old money) with half a teaspoon of roasted garlic, a scant tablespoon of mayonnaise (Hellman’s Light) and a few drips of hot sauce.  I coated avocado wedges in seasoned flour (well seasoned because avocado is rather bland), then beaten egg and finally panko crumbs and shallow fried in a little olive oil. Crunchy sea salt and a few sprigs of fresh coriander completed my meal.  

Oh – and the white wine Spritzer of course.

I followed this, as you do, with some ...

Cà Phê Sữa Nóng

There has been half a can of condensed milk in the fridge for a while so I decided to try Cà Phê Sữa Nóng aka Vietnamese Coffee!   

It is not as exotic as one might expect being just good strong coffee mixed with condensed milk in the ratio about 3:1.

Also surprisingly delicious – surprising because I usually drink my coffee black and unsweetened yet thoroughly enjoyed this sweet milky drink.  (On a personal note – Carol, I think you might like this!)

Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers

I love cooking with leftovers, and surprising myself with what I come up with. 

I even wrote a book about it.  Originally it was called The Leftovers Handbook but a new edition, available now, is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers: An Inspiring A – Z of Ingredients and Delicious Ideas