Crispy light beer batter

I have traditionally loved the panko for fried fish but i wanted to try something different with my rock fish.  This recipie produces very light airy batter that can be re heated in a toaster oven and is still crispy the next day.  It is super easy, and some of the best fried fish i have ever had. 

1 cup cake flower
1 cup of beer
2 egg whites beaten to soft peaks
Salt and pepper as desired.  I use 1 tsp of each
1 lb fish

It is imporant to gently fold the egg whites into the beer and cake flower. 

I usually fry pretty hot around 350. 

Enjoy!

I'm going to try it on some deep fried pickles in about 1/2 hour.
I'll let ya know how it goes.

Never had fried pickles but they sound delicious.

That batter will probably go good on them. 

In Atlanta Omar and I had deep fried chicken and fried green tomatoes.... The batter was excellent for the chicken but way too heavy for the tomatoes.

Thanks for sharing this.  I'm trying it this week. 

Any preferred style of beer?  Sierra Nevada is the only thing available locally (my kitchen). 

Sounds great can't go wrong with a good beer batter ...thx for sharing 

Thanks for sharing this.  I'm trying it this week. 

Any preferred style of beer?  Sierra Nevada is the only thing available locally (my kitchen). 

I have used budweiser and negra modelo with great results.  Nxt time i am going to try something crazy like a lagunitas ipa.  I suspect a heavy beer might make the batter heavy, but i want to give it a shot.  Let me know how the sierra works out!

It is important to not use normal flower, but cake flower to prevent gummy doughy batter.


Let me know what you think tote, i love fried pickles, but i have never used this batter for those. 

Right on, SD - I'm making it tonight, will use the SNPA, and did get the cake flour - $4.39 for 2 pounds at Safeway.  Better be good for that kinda dough for flour!!     (I'm cheap  )

Will report back with pics and videos.   

Thanks for sharing this.  I'm trying it this week. 

Any preferred style of beer?  Sierra Nevada is the only thing available locally (my kitchen). 

I have used budweiser and negra modelo with great results.  Nxt time i am going to try something crazy like a lagunitas ipa.  I suspect a heavy beer might make the batter heavy, but i want to give it a shot.  Let me know how the sierra works out!

It is important to not use normal flower, but cake flower to prevent gummy doughy batter.


Let me know what you think tote, i love fried pickles, but i have never used this batter for those. 

Lagunitas IPA isn't a heavy beer it will work fine.  A heavy ber would be a stout, porter or black IPA

First night used the 1/1 ratio. It was a little too light so I added a little more cake flour.
It was ok. Didn't stick enough to the pickles.
Next night did the same thing but after I dipped the pickles in the batter I encrusted them with panko and Zateran's seasoning. What a difference.....all for the good.
Had Diroblo and his daughter Cora over. What a sweetie.........not you Rob.  Not sure if we entertained her or she entertained us more.
Next time I'm going to roll the pickles in flour first, then batter, then panko....next time being this weekend.
I used bread and butter chips and dill ovals. That way I could tell the two apart after frying.
I do need to come up with a few different varieties of dipping sauces. All I had was ranch. It worked, but variety is the spice of life.

Hey thanks, this came in handy and worked well with an Adam's Double Agent LPA beer.

Just a note, you can very easily use all purpose flour, just avoid over mixing ... barely incorporate the flour into the beer and stop, even small lumps are ok. Was tender and won my wife's approval (not a beer fan  ).

Ben

I thought you might have trouble getting it to stick to pickles, for things like that i usually use another recepie that uses the yoke and egg whites.

I will have to try out some of that zaterans seasoning next time. 

It was tasty.   

I used one of my little deep fryers - "fry daddy" "fry baby" "fry cousin" - I can't keep track of their titles, but they're all widely available little $30 deep fryers that use about a quart of oil per run, but they do a nice job.  I've owned a dozen or more in the last 25 years.  They get too oily and gross after a few seasons...

I digress!  The batter was mixed by my daughter Claire.  She had done whites to soft peaks before, so she mixed it up while Collin and I were at soccer practice and I fried the fish right when we got home.  I put a bit too much in the fryer and pieces stuck to each other - I can get away with substantially more meat in the fryer at one time with my usual egg/milk/worcestershire coated with panko/bread crumbs, as it cooks so quickly that the pieces don't stick.  Anyway, the stuck pieces caused a bit more oilyness when I broke them apart while cooking and oil infiltrated the cooked patina, but I could prevent that by not overcrowding the fryer.  Next time I'll get two going at once and only put a few pieces at a time in.  The ones I took out at 3 to 4 minutes were just a bit doughy and quicker to go soft in the serving bowl, but still tasty and all consumed.  The darker golden brown batch was very good.  I used lingcod and the cabezon bellies from yesterday's catch.  It was just Claire and I eating fish tonight, and we grubbed down about 1.75 pounds of choice filets.   

Thanks for the recipe - we'll try it again and give more results and tweaks if we achieve successful ones!   

i also use the fry daddy.  it seems to do a pretty good job.  good points you make about not over crowding the frier and making sure to get that golden brown exterior gets time to crisp up. 

for sauces I like thousand island for dipping fried pickles.  for tartar sauce I like the beaver brand.