Fish fried in batter was first cooked in France. Translated from French, the word "claire" means "liquid". The batter is a dough in which it is necessary to dip the product immediately before frying.
Fish, fried in batter, has a particularly delicate taste, since the liquid breading in the form of a dough turns into a crispy crust when fried, which prevents the product from losing juice during cooking.
For frying in batter, it is better to use fish fillets. You can buy a ready-made semi-finished product in the store, or you can cook it yourself. To do this, you need to clean the fish from the scales using a special fish scaler, cut off the fish's head, tail fin, open the abdominal cavity and remove the insides. Next, you need to make deep cuts on either side of the dorsal fin parallel to the ridge and carefully remove the fillets from the rib bones using a sharp and flexible knife.
Scales from the fish may not be removed if the skin is subsequently removed from the fillet. Remove the skin very carefully. It is important that the subcutaneous fat layer remains on the fillet. This will prevent the pieces from warping during the frying process.
The finished fillet in the amount of 600-800 grams should be washed, dried with a paper towel, cut into portions, salt, pepper and put in a bowl for 10-15 minutes. This time is quite enough for salting the semi-finished product. If the fish has an unpleasant muddy smell, you can sprinkle it with lemon juice.
To prepare the batter, you need to break 3 eggs into a bowl, add 200 grams of flour, salt, spices to taste and mix all the ingredients well. Next, you need to carefully pour a glass of milk into the resulting mixture. It is best to pour the milk in a trickle while stirring the contents of the bowl constantly. The finished batter should resemble kefir in its consistency.
Fans of unusual tastes can be advised to cook fish not in milk, but in sour cream batter. To prepare it, you need to break 3 eggs into a bowl, add 5 tablespoons of wheat flour and 100 grams of liquid sour cream. To give the sour cream batter a piquant aftertaste, you can add 50 grams of finely grated cheese to it.
To prepare beer batter, mix 3 chicken eggs, 200 grams of flour, salt to taste and 200 milliliters of light beer in a bowl. For these purposes, it is recommended to use beer with a low alcohol content.
To make the batter light and airy, it is recommended to add a liquid product to it in a highly chilled form. Before preparing it, it is enough to soak milk, beer or sour cream in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Pieces of fish fillet should be dipped one by one into the prepared batter and put in a hot pan with a lot of vegetable oil. The fish should be fried over high heat for 4-5 minutes on each side.
At the end of cooking, place the fillet pieces on a paper towel to absorb excess fat. The finished fish should be laid out in portioned plates and garnished with chopped herbs. When serving, you can pour the fillet with sauce. This dish goes well with boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled rice, buckwheat, fresh vegetables.
