Now let’s cook
Lumps in the batter are not a mistake here: they are what keeps the coating light and crisp.
Ingredients
- 200 g sour creamthick soured cream made from cream and a starter culture
- 1 chopped garlic clovepeeled and cut small
- 3 tbsp lemon juicesqueezed from a lemon
- 1 tbsp dillfresh dill leaves, used as an aromatic seasoning
- 1 pinch saltfine table salt
- 400 g cod filleta commercial fish usually 40–80 cm long
- 1 pinch saltfine table salt
- 1 egg yolkthe yellow part of an egg
- 100 g wheat flourground from wheat grains
- 200 ml waterplain tap water
- 750 ml vegetable oilmade from plant seeds or fruit
Method
Put 200 g of sour cream in a bowl. Peel 1 garlic clove and chop it finely. Add the garlic, 3 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tbsp of chopped dill and a pinch of salt to the sour cream and stir. Pour the sauce into a small serving bowl and put it in the fridge for about an hour. The sauce is never put on the heat.
Cut 400 g of cod fillet into even strips and pat them dry with kitchen paper. Season the fish with a pinch of salt.
Put 1 egg yolk in a bowl, tip in 100 g of flour and pour in 200 ml of ice-cold water in a thin stream, stirring lightly. Do not stir until smooth: small lumps should stay. Put the batter in the fridge while the oil heats.
Pour 750 ml of vegetable oil into a deep pan or wok and heat it to 170–180 °C. The oil is very hot: do not leave it unattended and do not pour water into it.
Dip the strips into the batter one by one, let the excess drip off and lower them into the oil carefully, in small batches so that the oil does not cool down. Fry for 2–3 minutes on each side. Lift the thickest piece of each batch out with a slotted spoon and break it open. The pieces are done when the batter is golden and crisp: at least 74 °C in the batter. The fish is done when the flesh is opaque and flakes easily: at least 70 °C in the thickest piece of fish. If the flesh is raw, lower the piece back into the oil carefully, close to the surface, and check again.
Lift the fish out with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper to drain off the excess oil. Serve at once and put the cold sour cream sauce alongside.
