How to Cook Fish Fingers With Tomato Tartar Sauce
Makes: 18 fingers
Preparation time: 10 mins + 1 hour (inactive)
Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients needed to make Fish Fingers With Tomato Tartar Sauce:
For the fish fingers:
- 3 white fish fillets, sliced into ¾’’ x 3’’ strips
- 1 cup yellow cornmeal, ground
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- ¼ + ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp dried thyme, crushed
- Dash of paprika
- 2 tsp bottled horseradish
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp dry white wine
- 1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
For the sauce:
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup white wine
- ½ cup tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp gherkins, chopped
- 2 green onions, white and light green parts, chopped
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp Tabasco sauce
Cooking instructions for Fish Fingers With Tomato Tartar Sauce:
- To make the tomato tartar sauce, pour the tomato sauce and wine into a small saucepan, along with the minced garlic and cook the mixture over high heat, while stirring at times, until it starts boiling.
- Reduce it to a simmer and continue to cook the mixture until it reduces to half its original volume, without stirring even once; remove from heat and keep it aside to cool.
- Pour the cooled above mixture into a food processor, along with the mayonnaise, gherkins and green onions.
- Pulse them into a smooth puree and pour it into a bowl.
- Fold in the tabasco sauce, parsley and a dash of salt until well combined and leave it in the fridge, covered for an hour.
- To make the fish fingers, stuff the wine, horseradish, both kinds of mustard, ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp black pepper into a resealable plastic bag and shake well to mix.
- Place the fish strips into the bag, seal and flip it a number of times to coat well with the seasoning.
- Leave it in the fridge for an hour to marinate.
- Drizzle oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan and heat it to 350 degrees F.
- Whisk the flour, cornstarch, cornmeal, cayenne pepper and rest of the seasonings in a bowl until well combined.
- Dump the marinated fish strips into the above mixture and toss well to dredge evenly; shake off any excess.
- Dip these dredged fish strips into the hot oil, in batches, and fry them for about 4 minutes or until they turn golden.
- Drain them out using a slotted spoon, into a plate lined with paper towel to soak away extra grease and make rest of the fish fingers similarly.
- Serve them hot alongside a bowl of the prepared sauce.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
