Thursday 15 March 2012

Sustainable and Gluten Free Fish and Chips!

I was a big fan of the show Hugh's Fish Fight - all about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall supporting sustainable fishing and trying to prevent fish being thrown away due to the EU quota system and a process called discard. If you want to read more about it and support the campaign just click here. Since then, my girlfriend and I have been making a conscious effort to try and eat more sustainable species. It's led to the discovery of one of my favourite fish - pouting. It's a great white fish, with a delicate subtle taste, sustainable and ridiculously cheap! For the recipe below we used 4 pouting fillets from Tesco which came to about £1.60.

There's a great iPhone app called Fish Fight to support the campaign and Hugh has put on a number of tasty and sustainable fish recipes. Below is the recipe for Breadcrumbed Fillet of Pouting with Tartare Sauce, adapted to make it gluten free. My girlfriend loosely followed Heston's triple cooked chip recipe but most triple cooked chip recipes produce fantastic results. For the mushy peas, quite frankly, you can't beat the tinned variety for that authentic chip shop flavour! These were definitely a contender for the best fish and chips I've ever had and you certainly couldn't tell they were gluten free.

Ingredients (serves 4):
- 4 fillets of pouting
- 100g gluten free plain flour (we used Dove's)
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 150g gluten free breadcrumbs (we used Genius)
- 250ml sunflower oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the tartare sauce:
- 2 generous tablespoons of mayonnaise
- 1-2 hard boiled eggs, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon roughly chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon chopped dill
- 2-3 gherkins, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons capers, finely chopped
- Juice of half a lemon

  • Make the tartare sauce by simply stirring everything together in a bowl. Set aside
  • Put the pouting fillets on a board and skin them. Give them a quick bone-check with your fingers and remove any with tweezers
  • Put the flour in a deep plate and season with salt and pepper. Put the beaten eggs and breadcrumbs in two separate deep dishes
  • Lightly coat one fillet of fish in the flour, shaking off any excess. Dip the floured fish in the egg, making sure it's well coated, then roll it in breadcrumbs so it's generously covered. Repeat with the remaining fillets
  • Set a large, fairly deep, non stick frying pan over a medium heat and add the oil, it should be about 1cm deep
  • When the oil is hot, fry the breaded fillets (in batches if necessary), for 2-3 minutes each side until golden brown and crisp. Serve with the tartare sauce, chips, mushy peas and a wedge of lemon and enjoy!

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