Fried Fish

So simple yet so complicated. Getting the right fish fried at just the right way is one of the toughest thing to master for me. Probably for some people is a breeze but for me is like attaining one of the highest level of cooking skills!! I know I know...might be exaggerating a wee bit here but just think about it, if you overfry a fish, it's nothing but a chewy fried bit of leather!

To get the fish all crispy on the outside and yet tender and moist in the inside is not an easy task! Most fried fish are either over-fried, where the fish is all fried to the point of no return and the fresh fish flavor is all gone, or under-fried, where the fish is not crispy but all soggy with oil! GROSS! I believe that the "right" way to fry the fish depends on the type of fish used, I usually get the best results with fresh catfish. Oily fish, I believe, works well fried too, altough I've yet to try any of those since they can get pretty pricy (at the market) and personally I feel it would be wasted to fry it!

I fried this piece of cod steak seasoned with some salt(sparingly) and black pepper. And also drizzled a little hot oil blended soy seasoning on top of the fish and green oinions to finish the dish. And since I was deep frying, I thought I could also used up some of the Holland red peppers that I had in the fridge. I sliced them up vertically and just put them in the oil before I fried the fish so to give the fish a little spice (at least I thought it would but it turned out that the peppers ain't even spicy at all, they were sweet peppers!!)

The results were pretty good...I came pretty close in achieving that crispy outside and tender moist inside! The main thing is to eat it while it's still hot!!! :) And as for those peppers, they were better left as it is, just looking pretty, coz they were rather chewy and pretty much tasteless! The soy blend was good coz it gave a little sweetness and "smoothness" to the fish and especially to the spring onions. I also added some thinly sliced matchstick fried ginger as garnish as well. I kinda cheated in this recipe coz I used a deep fryer instead of pan-frying it. I find that oil controling is a pretty essential part of getting the "right" fried fish. My temperature used was 275F-280F and that's after "experimentating with various fish, at different sizes and different temps, I find that this was the "best" one for this particular slice of fish that I was working with. I think it also depends on the deep fryer as well...;)

Recipe
Ingredients
-Fish, as fresh as you can get them
-Salt and Black Pepper
-Rice Flour, 1 TBS
-Plain Flour, 2 TBS

Recipe for Hot Oil Soy Seasoning
-2 TBS Oil, vegetable or peanut
-1 TBS soy sauce
-1 TBS sugar

Method
-Clean the fish and then pat it dry with some kitchen napkins.
-Seasoned the fish sparingly (coz additional soy will be added to it).
-Dust it with rice flour and plain flour combination and dip it slowly in the heated oil for deep frying.
-Fried till cooked, takes about 8-10mins, depending on the size of the fish (so I just set the timer just in case I forget!!)

Seasoning
-Heat oil in a separate pan and the rest of the soy and sugar in another. When the fish is done, place on a plate, and place green onions on top(if used) and then add heated oil followed by the soy mixture.
-Serve and eat while hot!