Last week I heard two words that jettisoned me right back to high school — fish fry. Thanks to a heart attack that my father had suffered at a school football game and our family’s subsequent dietary restrictions, I grew up eating a lot of dry, unadorned fish dinners. Several times a season, though, we would slip out of these tight restraints and head off to a Friday night fish fry. Hosted by local churches and the Telephone Pioneers of America, of which my engineer dad was a devoted member, these events were the highpoint of our otherwise drab seafood diet.
What I remember most about those fish fries are the oil-stained, white paper plates that collapsed beneath the weight of their contents and the contents themselves. The cargo varied slightly, with sides of coleslaw, mac and cheese, pierogies or french fries, but always contained triangles of crunchy, golden batter encasing fillets of white fish. Paired with tartar sauce, malt vinegar and ketchup, the crisp, deep-fried fish was, in my mind, outrageously delicious.
Today I can’t say “no” to attending a fish fry nor can I go to an English pub without ordering fish and chips. When I’m at home, though, I am more apt to bake, saute or pan-fry my seafood. Even so I still like a bit of crackle and crunch at dinner. That’s when I turn to Crunchy Haddock Fillets.
The following recipe has been adapted from my upcoming cookbook Fish Market. If you can, purchase U.S., hook and line caught haddock, which has limited bycatch.
CRUNCHY HADDOCK FILLETS
Don’t expect the same crispiness as you’d get with deep-fried fish. Nonetheless, you will definitely enjoy a complexity of texture and flavor in this dish. You can also use Pacific cod, U.S. farmed catfish, Norwegian pollock and most other white fish.
Serves 4
1/3 cup cornmeal
2/3 cup buttery cracker crumbs (about 16 crushed crackers)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
4 (4- to 6-ounce) haddock fillets
Sea salt, to taste
Ground black pepper, to taste
Preheat the oven on 425˚F. Grease a large baking sheet.
In a large bowl mix together the cornmeal, cracker crumbs, onion powder and white pepper. In a small bowl beat together the egg and water.
Season the fillets with salt and black pepper. Dip each into the egg mixture and then into the cornmeal-cracker topping, coating the fish completely. Lay the haddock on the greased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining fillets, leaving 1 inch between each on the baking sheet.
Bake for 6 minutes on one side before turning over the fish and baking for an additional 4 to 6 minutes. When finished, the coating will be light brown and crisp in appearance. Serve immediately.