Easy Battered Fish in a Tasty Lemon and Parsley Batter - Gluten Free (or normal)

Delicious, crispy, battered fish, in a gluten free batter that packs a flavour punch!

Once you've tasted this, you won't want to go back to 'normal' batter - the lemon zest and parsley give it a delicious lift, and the cornflour and sparkling water make the batter lovely and crispy and light.

When you like the crispy bits and drizzle over a bit more batter after the first turn...

What's more, you can have battered fish without the mess and inconvenience of having to fill up a deep fat fryer with litres of oil - this has been simply shallow fried with only 1/2cm of oil in a non-stick frying pan - so it's quick and easy to do too (and you can filter and re-use the oil afterwards if you like).

Well, what more do you need to have a go - just get a couple of fillets of your favourite white fish, and if you like curry sauce on the side, have a go at my delicious and easy (gluten free) curry sauce - it's better that the chip shop's too - not that we're biased!!

The quick version with dried parsley and oven chips to keep everyone happy!

Serves two, easily doubled. Let's not talk about calories, because a small minority of my recipes are just never going to have them, OK? This is for a day when you just don't care!!

Ingredients

• 2 pieces boneless, optionally skinless white fish (e.g. cod loins), about 170g each
• 25g plain white gluten free flour (e.g. Dove's Farm), plus extra for flouring fish (if you're not cooking gluten free then you can just use normal plain flour)
• 25g cornflour (GF)
• 1/2 tsp each of fine sea salt, turmeric, onion powder/granules
• Small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped (if you haven't got fresh, then you could use a shake of dried parsley)
• Finely grated zest of a lemon
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 70g chilled sparkling water
• 1 egg white (30g)
• Neutral oil with a high smoking point (e.g. sunflower, vegetable oil, etc.) to 1/2 cm deep in a small to medium frying pan

Method

1. Wash fish, pat dry, give a light salting on one side and set aside whilst preparing other ingredients.

2. Mix together the flour, spices, parsley, lemon zest and a good grinding of freshly ground black pepper.

3. Lightly whisk the egg white until just a little frothy. Gently stir the sparkling water into the flour mix, then whisk in the egg white - stop stirring as soon as flour is mixed in, it doesn't matter if there are a few small lumps. You want to add the sparkling water to the rest of the batter ingredients *just* before you're ready to use it, if possible.

4. Pat cod completely dry again, and flour lightly. Set a small to medium non-stick frying pan on the heat, with 1/2 cm oil in the bottom (you can fry one at a time if you prefer then keep warm in a very low oven). Keep an eye on it - drop a little batter in to see when it sizzles and is ready to cook.

After turning over for the second time - yum, crispy bits!!

5. Dip the fish in the batter, and turn over until evenly coated and then put into the pan, laying down away from you so you don't get splashed. Turn after a minute or so, and turn a couple more times / or until cooked through. If you find on the first turn that there are any little patches with no batter on, just drizzle a little over said bare patch/es, before turning over again (if it should accidentally trickle down the sides a bit, you will end up with more crispy bits on the sides, so DO be careful...!). I test the fish is cooked by inserting a skewer into the thickest part of the fish and checking there is no resistance and the skewer feels hot.

6. Drain on greaseproof paper as it will stick to kitchen towel (although you can dab the top with kitchen towel to remove excess oil). Fish, just like meat, does benefit from a few minutes left to rest. Then enjoy with chunky chips, mushy peas, tartare sauce, curry sauce, or whatever else you like!

Did you enjoy this recipe? Then please do leave me a comment to help other people enjoy it too. Thank you.