I originally saw this on a cooking show when I lived in Corpus many years ago. I have tweaked it some but it still remains an excellent recipe. This will work extremely well on Chicken fried chicken or steak as well. It’s totally awesome on butterlied shrimp. {I like this on my saltwater fish but prefer a traditional cornmeal batter on my catfish and other freshwater species}.
Ingredients:
The Dredge:
• All purpose flour {start with a cup or so for a half dozen fillets}
• Garlic powder {maybe a half teaspoon}
• Old Bay seafood seasoning {maybe a half teaspoon}
• Salt & Pepper
• Can of beer at room temperature
• Baking Powder {teaspoon}
• ½ cup of milk
• 1 egg {hold till last}
Flour Mix:
• 1 ½ cups of All purpose flour
• Paprika {half teaspoon}
• Salt & Pepper
Making the Dredge and cooking: {I like to soak my fish for at least a couple of hours in milk before I cook} Put the flour in a bowl and combine the dry ingredients. Originally I remember there being equal proportions of flour, milk and beer but this doesn’t seem to work for me. I will usually start with adding the half cup of milk and then adding enough beer {while stirring} to make it ‘happy’ and get a pancake like batter {hummm, this sounds familiar}. The batter shouldn’t be too thick or too thin. Now separate the egg white into another bowl and use a mixer to whip till firm. Add this last and fold this into the batter. Add your filets to this mix.
Prepare the four mix if you haven’t already. You will now add a couple of filets at a time and roll them in the flour mix. When coated fry them in hot grease until golden brown. I will usually salt to taste after the fish come out … a cook’s privilege.
{Note: The dry flour mix will get moist & lumpy after rolling some of the fillets. I think this is prime time. I will often dip my hands in the batter and mix up the dry flour mix just to get some of these lumps in there. It makes for a better texture and great crispys}