Went ahead and pushed this post up for my brothers and sisters observing lent. Almost. That’ll be the key word for this post because while I try, there’ll always be someone to question the authenticity or the process – so it’s safer just to say almost. My fish category has been severely lacking – and it’s mostly due to inexperience – so let’s get some experience under our belt. Today is a fish fry.
The Prep Table
Continuing with our theme of almost – I understand the Brits don’t consider the tartar sauce as a traditional condiment for their fish & chips. One of my fondest memories is the trip to Leo Burdock’s in Dublin. I can share a post in itself about this experience, but this iconic chipper – although Irish – is my inspiration for this one. Again, almost. I do like me a tartar sauce, so I wanted to make my own with a little bit of extra (my cajun seasoning). We’re going to mix this one up with the above ingredients.
MrsForensicBBQ couldn’t help herself to graffiti the catfish given her love for cats – so that’s her artwork. We’re going relatively simple with the batter: flour, baking powder, salt. And an all American Pabst Blue Ribbon. We’re going to fashion our own chips (fries) because why wouldn’t we. I haven’t done either, so this will be an experience.
The Process
Thick cut the potatoes the way I remembered them back in Dublin. We prepped the dry ingredients – knowing a splash of cold beer was all that was needed to finish this off. Upper left- you’ll see that delicious beef tallow from last week. We’re going to use this to fry up our taters and fish.
This tartar sauce has the look of perfection. That added dill weed added the look of complexity – and while I made this the night before, I knew it was going to be good today. Shocker – I’m actually typing this hours after I ate this.
Here’s where divorce was near. I told MrsForensicBBQ I was using beef tallow to cook everything up. So when I offered her to try one of the chips – and she raved about the result.. she also forgot about the source of the fry. Of course it was delicious, but I unintentionally violated her plant-based dietary regimen. Unintentional is the key word. But she loved it 🙂
We threw the jar of tallow into our cast iron and dried the heck out of the taters. I made way too many taters for my two fillets of catfish. Again, proving my RecTeq can do anything – we’re going to fry everything up using our Bull – in multiple steps.
We did a quick first fry for about 5min give-or-take, and then let ’em rest. The rest period was easy, because this was about 5-6 different batches. So by the time I was done, it was ready to finish-fry the first. This picture details it perfectly.
When the fries (chips) were done, ideally we’d throw ’em low-temp into the oven to keep ’em crisp, but I enjoyed enough of them post fry to know they turned out spectacularly. Salt them fresh out the fryer and they were delicious. I can’t state it enough – beef tallow fry is a magical experience. The depth of flavor is unmatched – as MrsForensicBBQ’s new hatred of me proves.
When the oil was back to about 350F internal, I splashed in the cold PBR and mixed up that batter. Threw a catfish fillet in and let it go until golden brown. Let’s see how everything turned out.
The Result
The chips turned out pretty alright. For specificity – we did a 350F oil first fry until slightly cooked, but definitely soft. Cooled down, then back into the 350F oil until that golden color we’re used to. That double fry had the external crisp with that internal fluffy potato that is needed from the thick cut British (Irish?) chip.
First catfish fillet went in, took it out and while decent, I knew it could be better. I had two, so let’s see how that second one turned out. Each one was a shallow fry, it was a cast iron pan after all. It was a 4-6minute fry each side – all depending on color. Even though the RecTeq has a lid that prevents us from watch it as it goes – keep an eye and make sure we’re cooking it to delicousness.
Now that second fillet turned out incredible, so that’s what we’re looking at. Threw a hefty puddle of that tartar sauce and some lemon wedges and we’re ready to partake in what I call: Almost British-style fish & chips. Even though my baseline was sitting on the curb fence-line across from Leo Burdock’s in Dublin – This was pretty delicious. No mushy peas as a traditional Brit platter would see – maybe I’ll go that route for round two. Until then, grab yourself a trusty cast iron and don’t be shy to use your pellet smoker – the thing is meant to be versatile, and hopefully I prove that to you today!