Recipe - Pan Fry Sutchi Fillet With Beer Batter

The sutchi fillet has mild flavour and that means the fish will absorb any flavour you add to it. In this recipe, I pan fry the fillets in beer batter. The conventional way of making fish and chips is to deep fry the fish. I use pan fry to save oil.

Beer batter gives a light and crispy coating for the fish. It leaves the inside juicy and the outside with a crunch.

Step 1 - Prepare the fish. I use 2 fillets. Lightly rub salt on the fillet and rinse the fillet with water. This is to get rid of any sea smell or mud smell.

Step 2 - Marinate the fillets. I use a teaspoon of light soy to give it the salt taste. Light  soy has a nicer fragrance than salt. Add a dash of pepper and let the fillets sit.

Step 3 - Prepare the batter. For 2 fillets, I use about 4 tablespoon of flour. Use a bowl or tray with a flat bottom, add in the flour. Add the cold beer slowly and stirring the mixture at the same time. Batter is about 1 part flour to 1 part beer.  It should be runny, not too thick and not too thin. Beer adds a slight flavour, but water or fizzy drinks like 7-up can also be used. The beer has to be cold so that there will be no lumps in the mixture.
(For fluff, add a teaspoon of baking powder. When fried, the batter will puff up.)

Step 4 - Ready for frying. I coat the fillet with an egg for flavour. Before coating the fillet with batter, have a few spoons of flour on a plate for coating the fillet. This allows the fillet to better absorb the batter. Get the pan ready with 2 tablespoons of oil on medium heat.

Pat dry the fish fillet.
Dip the fillet into the beaten egg.
Dredge the fillet over a plate of plain flour
Dip the fillet into the batter.
Fry the fillet with batter in the pan.
It takes about 2 minutes to fry each side.

I like to eat this beer battered fillet with tartar sauce.

Enjoy
  

This next 5 minute video shows how to make a crispy beer battered fish. If you want the fish to be really crispy, add some rice flour to the flour mixture. Not too much, one portion of rice flour to 4 portions of plain flour is probably alright. Some chefs advocate a one to one ratio, that means one cup of plain flour to one cup of rice flour.



A short 3 minute video showing how to pan fry sutchi fillet with garlic and pepper powder.
Looks good.



A 2 minute video with Gordon Ramsay showing how to pan fry tandoori spiced halibut.