Gluten Free Battered Fish

A new recipe for 2013 this is a heavily updated batter recipe for coating which we have tweaked to perfection over the last few months, to suit your personal taste or to coat other foods, for example sausages, you might still want to vary the amount of flour a little (10-15 g less or more depending on desired consistency).

Preparation time - ~5 minutes
Cooking time - ~5-8 minutes
Makes / Serves - makes enough batter to coat 4 average sized cod fillet portions
Child friendly - 1/5
Difficulty rating - 2/5

Ingredients:

130 g gluten-free plain flour alternative
80 ml warm water
50 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
extra flour for coating
vegetable or sunflower oil for frying

Method:

1. Put the flour and baking powder into a jug and mix well.
2. Add the water and milk and beat until a smooth mixture is obtained, set aside.
3. Put some extra flour onto a plate. Dredge both sides of each fish portion in the flour, shaking off any excess but ensuring a thorough coating, and place to one side.
4. Heat your oil, testing the temperature by dripping in a little batter, the batter should instantly start to give off bubbles and cook to golden in 2-3 of minutes. If using a deep fat fryer a temperature of 180-190 C should be used depending on the model and capacity of the fryer.
5. Dip each fish portion into the the batter one at a time, quickly placing them into the oil, you may need to cook them singularly or in pairs depending on frying method.
6. Cook each portion for around 5-8 minutes or until golden brown all over.

Tips:

1. This is a great all purpose coating batter but you will possibly need to make it thicker or thinner for coating different foods, for example the recipe works as is for for most fritters but needs to have about an extra 10-15 g of flour added for sausages.
2. You don't need a deep fat fryer or pan full of oil to cook this! A good quality deep frying pan with around 1 cm of oil, over a medium-high heat, works very well, you will need to turn the fish roughly every 3 minutes using this method and cooking times will be 1-2 minutes longer overall.
3. If you want a lighter, more bubbly, batter you could use sparkling spring water instead, just make sure the water is at room temperature and not chilled. Likewise you could also use warm 'gassy' beer  instead of water if you prefer a beer batter.