Chris Makes Fried Fish Sandwiches

[upbeat music]

Hey, I'm Chris Morocco.

I'm in the Test Kitchen.

We're making fried fish sandwiches

with tartar sauce and pickled cucumbers.

This, to me, is like iconic summer cooking.

[rimshot]

First thing we're gonna do is make the tartar sauce.

This fits within this world of mayonnaise-based sauces

punched up with like really assertive ingredients.

So, this is a sauce that cuts through.

There are obviously measurements in this recipe,

but I want to show you

that like you don't necessarily have to be beholden

to following a recipe strictly speaking.

Mayonnaise is really the base,

and there's no need to make your own here.

Dijon mustard, little bit of punch.

Sweet pickle relish.

Really sweet.

I don't necessarily put it on my hotdogs,

but in a sauce like this,

it's so, so good.

Capers.

Did you pre-drain these for me?

Thank you.

You need to chop 'em up a little bit.

You can disperse the capers a little bit

throughout the sauce.

I'm a little specific about my zest.

I believe you gotta go from pole to pole

making one pass.

You get into a real rhythm with it.

That's how you get like that outer zest

without digging into the pith.

Take the zest before you bisect the lemon.

I love these.

I know you can like squeeze juice other ways,

but it's just so clean.

You don't necessarily want

like tons of garlic flavor in here.

So, like a modest clove.

And we're gonna microplane this.

The microplane unleashes the full garlicyness of the garlic.

So, I know we're gonna need

a little bit of extra salt in here.

Some of these ingredients are salty,

but we want it to cut through.

But we just created something

like very bright, very punchy.

It's bright, it's a little bit sweet.

I'm very happy with that.

[rimshot]

Pickles.

When else have I done this?

I do this like on [beep] everything.

Seasoned rice vinegar.

It's got sweetness, it's got salt.

You can just use it straight up.

You don't need a mandolin to slice things thinly.

And just take a little bit off

just to give me like a steady base.

Cut down the length of it.

Once you get kind of close to your fingers,

just turn it on its side again.

The reason why I'm cutting it lengthwise

is I want these to get drapey,

but stay put.

The vinegar, it's gonna draw out some of the water content

from the cucumbers.

It's gonna create its own brine.

And then these can just sit until we're ready to assemble.

[rimshot]

We've got a few different scenarios

when it comes to the buns.

Okay, when it comes to bun prep,

option one is do nothing.

And that's valid.

A squishy bun isn't trying to pretend

to be something it's not.

Option two, you toast it,

just to kind of wake the bread back up.

Option three.

Taking a little bit of butter,

and go over to the stove

and kind of do one of these.

And that kind of works.

But I want like leveled-up buns here.

In terms of leveling up the flavor

of just like a regular, pretty average, store-bought bun,

brushing on a little bit of melted butter

just gets everything nice and coated on here.

And then just light pressure there.

So, I'm doing this in the cast iron

that we're ultimately gonna fry the fish in.

'Cause the buns, once they're toasted,

they can kind of hang for a minute.

So, that's nice.

Now we're gonna go in with our oil for frying.

We're gonna let this heat up

while we make our dredge and our batter.

[rimshot]

We're making dredge,

which is our dry mixture

that the fish is gonna be dipped into initially.

And then we're making our batter,

the wet mixture that is gonna be the final coating

before it goes into the oil.

So, quarter-cup each AP flour and corn starch.

Has no gluten,

so you're not gonna get chewiness.

You're gonna get crispiness.

We can put some salt in there,

but we don't need much.

Into the batter bowl.

AP flour, corn starch.

The baking powder is gonna create lift to the batter

as it fries.

It's gonna kind of open up inside that layer

so it's not kind of rubbery.

Next, we're gonna do cayenne,

which is just straight, pure heat.

Old Bay's like got quite a bit of salt in it,

so that is gonna form the bulk of our seasoning.

Now we're gonna do the liquid part.

One egg.

Makes it like just ever show slightly doughy.

And I don't mean that in a bad way,

like it really kind of gives it substance.

And then a light beer.

Carbonation, even if it's just club soda,

provide lift to the batter,

making it really light and airy.

So, I want the egg to be mixed

before the beer goes in

because I don't wanna have to whisk it to death

and decarbonate the beer.

Light beer mainly because it's gonna be

the sort of the mildest in flavor.

In addition to carbonation,

the beer is also giving us acidity.

Lower pH environments inhibit gluten formation,

preserving tenderness in the batter.

Just want like a few swift strokes here.

Done.

[rimshot]

Fish.

Gonna season somewhat generously.

Gonna go into our dry dredge,

shaking off all the excess here.

If you wanna use another implement,

a fish spatula is a pretty nice thing to use there.

See how the batter is really clinging?

It's also kind of bubbling a little bit.

If you're afraid of the oil,

just kind of lowering it using the spatula.

You can use any flaky whitefish here.

Hake, haddock, halibut.

This is cod.

I'm looking for color change.

You can already see

like there's quite a big difference

where like that sort of raw batter

and then what's happening color-wise

to the cooked batter there.

So, I do like the clinginess of this batter.

It's not gonna adhere like 100% perfectly,

but I do really like the way

that it's giving like a nice barrier

between the oil and the fish.

This one like got a little bit more color,

but when you do like a very shallow fry

in cast iron like this,

it's gonna sit on the bottom of that cast iron,

which is why some spots get a little bit darker.

Fish is done.

Looking beautiful.

We're gonna head back to the station and finish this off.

[rimshot]

First thing I'm gonna do,

like I'm gonna just grab a handful of dill,

and I'm literally gonna just tear it up

and sprinkle it in these cucumbers.

It just wakes up all the flavors.

Beautiful piece of fish laid on like so.

And then to finish,

I just want like a couple pieces of iceberg

that are gonna drape right over the fish like so.

And then I'm gonna use

a generous amount of the sauce to finish.

Knowing that like once I put the top on,

it's gonna kind of ooze out just slightly.

It's messy, it's beautiful.

This is my fried fish sandwich.

[upbeat music]

The fish is still crispy.

I just wanna point that out.

Like that is so satisfying to me.

Moist, juicy, super tender,

but with that shattering shell around it.

I just love that it hits like that summer beachy vibe,

but something that's actually pretty simple to do at home.

I hope it can convince you

that you can make amazing fried fish yourself at home.

Even if you didn't wanna put it on a sandwich,

totally fair game,

but I think layered with the tartar sauce,

the pickled cukes, so good.

[upbeat music]