Fish on Friday

About 2 months ago, Matt was given a few bags of Pollok from a guy he knows through the truck stop. If you've never heard of it before, let me refer you to the wikipedia entry for Pollock, which describes it as a "grey fish" used mainly in commercial preparations - think frozen fishsticks, although the Norwegians are apparently fans of using it to make fish balls.

ahem...

cough.

Moving on...

The first time I made it, it was very fishy. I mean very fishy, and I didn't like it at all, though Matt thought it was okay. So I've been reluctant to make it again. But it's Lent, and we have the fish so I really can't justify not using it and going out to buy Haddock or Salmon. It's supposed to be a sacrifice, right? I talked to a friend at work who loves to cook, and he mentioned soaking it in milk for a few hours to draw some of that fishiness out of it. I vaguely remembered reading this before, so I decided to give it a try for dinner last night. And since when I made fish for Tanya and Mike a few weeks ago, Tanya said she wanted the recipe, I thought I'd post it up here.

So first thing to note is that I put the fish directly from the freezer into the milk, and then put it in the fridge, covered, before I left for work in the morning. I had thought it would thaw, but what actually happened was that a lot of the milk froze to the fish and made a kind of milky, fishy slush. MMMMmmmm. Doesn't that sound good? It did partially thaw. Just not as much as I expected. So when I got home I rinsed the fish in lukewarm water (which thawed it the rest of the way) and patted it dry. Of course, if you're using Haddock or Cod you can completely skip the milk bath, though you still should rinse and pat dry with paper towels.

For breading, I take the recommendation from Cooks Illustrated, which is Melba Toast. My mother always used Ritz crackers and butter when I was a kid, and that was delicious but much higher in fat. Melba Toast is low fat and makes a crispier crumb. Don't expect crunchy, it won't get you there, but I like it a lot.

Since Tanya didn't know what Melba Toast was, here's a picture. I use the whole grain because I think it's more flavorful than the original version.

Toast goes into the food processor and is pulverized. For a pound of fish I usually use a whole box. This means a good amount of leftover crumbs when I'm done, which feels a little wasteful but it's impossible to get good even breading on the last few pieces of fish if you don't have extra crumbs. Once the toast is completely crumbled, I add a dash of cayenne pepper, a 1/4 tsp of garlic powder, and 1 tbsp vegetable oil and pulse until combined. The result should be even crumbs that kind of look like damp beach sand, the kind that's perfect to build sand castles with.

For the egg wash, I whisk together two eggs, 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard, and 2 tbsp water. I find that some takeout containers recycle perfectly as breading trays. These came from a sushi order at Chen Yang Lee two years ago, and are still going strong. So here's the set up: fish, egg wash, breading, cookie sheet lined with foil and metal cooling rack placed on top. The pan set up is important because the cooling rack allows air circulation under the fish and keeps it from getting a soggy bottom.

I didn't take pictures of the actual breading process because it gets your hands pretty messy and I wasn't about to touch the camera in that condition, but it's the standard drill. Dip in egg, roll in crumbs, place on rack.

This gets a spritz of pam or other vegetable oil spray, and then you roll it over to get the other side. That's the final step to making it crisp on the outside. Bake in a 375 degree oven until it flakes evenly, usually between 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.

Pollock shrinks when you cook it. This plate is small - about 7 inches in diameter - and these came out very much like fish sticks, which I guess is appropriate since they were made with pollock. We make a killer tartar sauce to go with any fish we have (well, except sushi). It's 1/2 cup of mayo, 1/3 cup of sweet pickle relish (pressed slightly to reduce the amount of juice, otherwise it gets soupy), 1/2 tsp creamy horseradish, and about three dashes of Tabasco-type hot sauce. It's got that sweet, creamy, spicy, kicky flavor that goes with with this breading. Also, leftovers of this fish make awesome fish sandwiches the next day.

Not that we have any left over.