Sea Food Batter

Sea Food Batter

printable version

This recipe card is referenced to the Sacramento Union.  My mom grew up in Sacramento and my grandmother lived there as long as I knew her.  The Sacramento Union was one of two newspapers in town - it closed in 1994.

Because the instructions said "mix well" and  "fold" I decided to use a hand mixer and my old, Mixmaster mixing bowl (which I always use for mixing even though the automatic mixer is long gone).   I put the dry ingredients into the bowl - always happy to use the baking powder with it's built in leveler right on the can so I don't have to do it myself with a knife.

For fat I decided to use coconut oil.  I put the TBSP into the 1/2 c. water and then heated on "beverage" in the microwave until the fat was melted. 

The water got a bit hotter than "lukewarm" but I didn't think it would make much difference.

 I moved the dry ingredients around with a fork to stir a bit and then dropped in the egg.

I poured the liquid around and mixed with the hand mixer.

I was very surprised at how crumbly this mixture became.

I didn't imagine we needed meringue-type egg whites so I just beat it a few times with a fork, like if I was making scrambled eggs.  It occurred to me that there wasn't much seasoning so I sprinkled the fish with Cavender's Greek Seasoning before dipping in the batter -  a spice blend that my Greek mother always had in her kitchen.

It was obvious that there was liquid missing so I wet the fish first with water then pushed it into the batter.  When I picked it up - nothing had stuck. So I wound up spreading the batter on the fish almost like spreading massa on a corn husk for making tamales.

I was worried that when I picked it back up from the plate, after all pieces were battered and ready for the pan, the bottom side would lose all its batter.  It lost a lot but not all.  So I put the less-battered side up and wiped it off the plate with my fingers and spread it back on the fish.

I wasn't too surprised that the batter separated from the fish - especially when I turned it.

The fish was done and a couple of spots of batter were still a little gooey but probably cooked enough.  I got it all onto paper towels to drain off the grease and then lumped it onto a plate.  By that time the batter was its own entity.  I figured if you cut up the batter and the fish and mix it around then scoop some up you'd get both batter and fish while you were eating it so the taste would be okay even if the presentation wasn't.  

Other people in my house separated fish from batter and just ate the fish.  I ate it all together.  I actually liked the batter, I thought it had a good taste and fried up to a nice consistency - but I'd like to know how to get it to stay on the fish, and not be so difficult to "dip".  I wonder if a can of beer would be helpful.  (mixed in the batter...not drunk)  I think it'd be worth experimenting.