King George in beer batter

[Trumpeter]

For the final part of my wife's mother's day celebration today I wanted to do something special for her for dinner so what could be better than a few fillets of the old King George, deep fried in beer batter. I like to store the fish whole rather than freezing the fillets and yesterday took four out and let them slowly defrost in the fridge. Once they're about 95% defrosted the fish are easy to fillet and de-bone while still a little firm and the skin just peels straight off.

The recipe's really simple, about 1.5 cups self raising flour, pepper, salt and about 3/4 of a stubby of your favorite beer.

Mix the beer slowly into the flour, pepper and salt until there's no lumps, it needs to be just a little bit runny so if too thick add more beer. Put the batter into the freezer for a while, or you can float ice cubes in it, main thing is to get it really cold, this makes the batter light and crispy. Heat your oil to 180C and away you go.

All done now and ready to plate up.

This time served with some fat chips and a slaw with a white balsamic dressing.

Can't wait for desert! :a_goodjob: :banana:

[chris srsc]

Looks great...

Do you gut and scale/deslime your whiting before freezing whole?

[Lightningx]

Looks very tasty mate! Awesome filleting skills :thumbsup:

[matt1991]

Hope you got your desert mate ;P

[Nude up]

We must think alike I cooked the misses whiting and flathead last night with a squid entree

[poodoo]

Looks like really nice batter mate! Feeling like fish and chips now.

[skuxliss]

Looks delish mate! Good work

[Trumpeter]

Looks great...

Do you gut and scale/deslime your whiting before freezing whole?

Yes that's all done out on the water, I like taking the gills out to so if we eat them whole there's no offal at all.

[Trumpeter]

We must think alike I cooked the misses whiting and flathead last night with a squid entree

She must have been happy with that -the best way to a woman's heart is through her stomach!

[Scraglor]

Haha, you and I do very similar things with our whiting. I gut/gill/scale my whiting, then vac seal them up. Come out like they are fresh. I bet your mum is rapt!

I have a very similar recipe to yours also, it tastes fantastic. as a rule I work on 1:1 parts self raising flour and beer. I usually go a cup of each, then a cup of ice cubes in there. You want the batter whisked up to be quite airy just before you drop the fish in it and in the oil, and you want it as cold as possible. I have also found the dryer beers make crispier, lighter batter. Asahi makes a good one.

A great way to test if your oil is hot enough is to drop a cube of bread into it, it will turn brown in about 10 seconds. Less and it isnt hot enough, more and it might be a little hot.

Beer battered whiting is one of my favourite meals, I have cooked it for a few close mates who thought they didnt like fish, and they are now hassling me to go out fishing.