Pseudo-Fish and Chips

My diet is mainly composed of any choice of meat or fish usually combined with vegetables in salad form or steamed. Recently though I was in the mood to make something different, perhaps a slight culinary challenge yet, pleasing to the taste buds. Coming home from work I knew I had some lovely chunks of tuna steak waiting for me in the fridge. My original idea was to lemon and pepper it and throw it over salad, but salad just didn't appeal to me this evening. My mind was racing at the same speed as the train I was riding. The sound of my mental recipe roller deck was clattering to a halt and nothing had distinguished itself yet. Just then Flogging Molly started to funnel through my headphones and the memory of the first time I saw them play paraded itself in front of my eyes. Watching Dave King fiery red hair belting out "Selfish Man" with a pint of Guinness by his feet and another giant version of said stout protruding through the Ashbury Park, NJ sky. I wanted fish and chips.

Luis' Pseudo Fish and Chips

Cup of bread crumbs

Tuna fillet

2 eggs

salt and pepper


Now making fries/chips is the easy part, so I'm not going to get in to that. Actually, cooking the fish is not all that difficult either, but you got to want to get your hands dirty. Cut the fillets in to any desired size. Personally, I prefer nugget size chunks that are easier to dip and eat with your hands. Drop some salt and pepper into a small bowl. Crack the eggs in to a bowl. Some like to use just the whites, I use yolk and all. If you keep the yolk, with a whisk or fork beat to until the are evenly yellow. Pour some oil into medium frying pan over a medium flame until you have more than covered the bottom of the pan. I prefer lite olive oil over any others. Frying is never the healthiest choice, but the rare times that I do I try to stick with arguably the best pan frying oil around. Look in to Macadamia Nut oil, which is a bit expensive but catchy on as another healthy oil.

You can either dip the fish in to salt and pepper or sprinkle it over with your free hand while holding the fish in you palm. Then dip the fish into the bread crumbs until all sides are evenly covered. Most fish and chips' fish is made with flour, baking soda and beer, but I like the crunchy texture you get with bread crumbs, plus this isn't a traditional style F&C recipe, so what the heck! You can lightly place the fish in the pan or use tongs. Now we are not deep frying here, so when you see the bottom start turning gold and crusting over, use your tongs to flip the fish to another side until all sides are a golden color. Place on a dish lined with paper towels or fresh newspaper to absorb some oil. Then transfer to another fresh towel/newspaper lined dish/bowl.

I wasn't happy with the high calorie tartar sauce options I found at the supermarket, so naturally, I made my own. I used low fat mayo, a squeeze of lemon, dash of apple vinegar, fresh cracked pepper, and with no relish insight I chopped some tsukemono. Tsukemono is the Japanese version of pickles but they used Asian cucumbers which are thinner and are also pickled with less salt. Also, malted vinegar wasn't readily available, so instead I used apple vinegar.

There you have it! A variation on a classic. Give it a try and don't forget to down it with a Guinness. The larger the glass, the better!