Recipe: Guinness Batter Fish Fry

The fish fry went well so I wanted to share the basics of the batter.

[Needs to be a photo here - working on it]

4 Tilapia fillets - or whatever fish you want - I also used scallops, though a deep fryer would have made them better
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2/3 cup beer - in this case Guinness Stout which made for a nice creamy flavored finish

Whisk the wet into the dry ingredients

Salt and pepper the fish then dredge it in flour, dip it into the batter and place it into a pan of hot oil (olive, or your preference). How hot? I didn't measure but should have since I splattered a little and got some nice grease burns on my arm. Keep the temperature under control or you may burn the batter before cooking the fish - What? Maybe that happened to me. So? - Cook the fish for a couple of minutes on each side - til its done is my general rule - and with fish, don't overcook.

That's pretty much it. Its not really original, I mined some recipes from around the web and other cookbooks - I'm not good with flour ratios and that kind of thing, so I always have to look that stuff up.

I served it with lemon slices and tartar sauce (how bold!) and of course a pint of Guinness.

Not in Denial

I'm not in denial over what happened Sunday, but I'm not going to talk about it (or read about it, discuss it, watch it). So instead I'll go over the food, which was a huge success. I thoroughly enjoyed the fish fry. (We took pictures and I'll post when I get around to it). Here's the menu:

• Shrimp (ok, so I boiled the shrimp, I'm easing into the whole fry thing);
• Mussels steamed in butter and garlic with parsley and taragon (still not fried - yikes! Some fish fry!);
• Tilapia fillets, Guinness battered and fried(hurray!);
• Scallops, same Guinness batter and fried;
• Fish sticks for the kids - although they ate mostly the shrimp and some mussels - next time I'll skip the frozen sticks;
• French fries (ok, so I went frozen here as well - maybe next year I'll get a fryolator and make my own).

I guess that was it. I had planned to do cole slaw and some raw veggies but got all wrapped up in the fry. I need a sous chef sometimes.

Accompanying this was a few pints of Guinness. We ended with grocery store bakery cupcakes with red and blue icing and little plastic footballs on them. The footballs were rings and we wore those as we watched [something] on TV.

It worked out great. The food was ready and consumed before [something] started and we were couch bound with brews and snacks by [something].

I really enjoyed it - the battering and frying. *Sniff* *Sniff* Do I smell a fryolator in my future...