Lightly Fried Fish Fillets! (and coleslaw)

Have you ever seen the text message meme where the dad keeps asking if his child wants “lightly fried fish fillets”? For some reason, it just makes me laugh, and now whenever I’m cooking fish, I think of the lightly fried fish fillets. Here it is if you haven’t seen it, and no…I don’t know why it makes me laugh so much.

We get the opportunity to have lightly fried fish fillets fairly often because JP loves to fish. Last night, he caught some ling, and the people on the boat recommended frying it. There isn’t much of a recipe to these. Season flour with salt, pepper, and Old Bay seasoning. Dry each fish fillet, dip in a mixture of beaten egg and water, dip in the flour, making sure the fish is covered well. While you’re doing that, heat about 1/2 inch vegetable oil in a frying pan (preferably one with high sides) till oil sizzles when you flick a drop of water in – be careful! Fry the fish in the hot oil, being careful not to overcrowd the pan (I got four of the skinny pieces shown above in at a time), until brown on both sides. Remove to a paper-towel lined plate and let any excess oil drain.

I also made a nice vinegar coleslaw to go with them, and there is a recipe for this. A really easy one, but a recipe. This will serve about 2-4 people, depending what else you have with it, but it’s easily doubled.

You’ll note this is not a mayonnaise-based coleslaw – I make them sometimes, but I find a vinegar slaw is nice with fried food.

 Vinegar Slaw

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 and 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons stevia (or your sweetener of choice, I’ve done this with two splenda packets and also with a teaspoon of sugar)
Dash pepper (about four turns of the mill)
1/2 bag coleslaw mix

Combine oil, vinegar, celery salt, sweetener, and pepper. Whisk well until combined. Add coleslaw mix and refrigerate about 15 minutes. Enjoy with or without lightly fried fish fillets.

Hope you’re feeling inspired to make some lightly fried fish fillets of your own!