Beer Batter Fish

[Mister Coaster]

I thought I remembered seeing a topic about this once before, but I did a search and didn't see it, so here's my recipe. I made this last night, and by george I think I finally got it right...

Cod fillets, about 6" long, cut in half lengthwise
Beer, something light
3/4 cup flour
1 TB baking powder
2 TB cajun seasoning
Canola oil
salt

Get fresh cod if you can find it. I used frozen and could tell it had either been frozen for a long time or frozen, thawed, refrozen, thawed... Place fish out at room temperature for an hour or so prior to cooking on paper towles. Try to get any water build-up out of the fish... you know what they say about oil and water.

Mix the flour, baking powder and cajun seasoning in a bowl. Add 3/4 cup beer and stir. You might have to keep adding beer until the mix is thin enough to stir easily, but thick enough to stick to the fish. About the thickness of pancake batter. Using a lighter beer seems to work better for me, dark heavy beers have too much body and will lend a funky taste when cooked. A lager or a light-bodied amber is as dark as you want to go.

If you have a deep fryer, good for you. I suppose you think that makes you special or something? If not (like me) you can use a stock pot or a wok on the stove. Heat oil to 360 degrees, USE AN OIL THERMOMETER. If you don't have one, go get one... I'll wait... Got one now? Good. Dip fish in the batter and dive directly into the hot oil. Cook about 6 minutes for average size fillets, flipping halfway through. Remove from oil and place on draining rack. Sprinkle with a little salt as soon as they come out of the oil.

[Dawson70]

If you would take a small adjustment from the Fishfry Capital of the world (Wisconsin), subsitute the light for a dark lager.(Goose Ale works GREAT) Also, you can add a drop or two of Tabsco. (personally I add about a tbl spoon in a batter sizeable for 10 cod strips). Adding the Tabsco, won awards! really! Not only does it add a little zing, but adds a nice golden color.

[Mister Coaster]

Do you have a specific dark beer that you use? Because I tried a porter once and there was a noticeable funk to the cooked fish. I have always had more success with the lighter beers. I actually used Bud Light this last time. (well, I wasn't going to drink it) Tobasco sounds good, but I think the Cajun seasoning does essentially the same thing.

[Willravel]

I'm not a personal fan of beer battered anything, but that does look like an interesting taste.

[snowy]

I used to work at a brewpub that made its own beer battered fish. We used cod at first, then switched to halibut. We never used a dark beer in our batter simply because it did add a certain flavor to the batter that isn't necessarily pleasant. Usually we went with our pale ale. It worked very well.

And yes, there is another thread on this somewhere, but I think it was more about tempura.

[Mister Coaster]

Yeah, I suppose halibut would be better. A higher quality fish to start with would yeild a higher quality end result. Fresh halibut can be pretty spendy, however, which is why I was using cod.