Fish Sticks, Chips (Fries) and Carrots

Now once I get a job don't expect so many posts in one week and don't expect to see two new recipes tested out in one go. That just isn't going to happen. But it was a big cooking day (I also made bread and mayonnaise - those will be other future posts).

First out of the box was fish sticks.  Yeah, yeah I know sounds real boring but they really came out good.  This would be a real good gateway recipe to get a kid to like fish. Now I technically started out using this recipe from Cooking Light that I've had sitting around since 2011. I adapted it quite a bit. I liked the idea of the pumpkin seeds and panko but wasn't too enthralled with the rest.  Plus it uses two egg whites - ugh not those pesky left over yolks again! So I decided to just use whole eggs. How much fat are you really saving by just using the whites - not enough. Now maybe if it were warmer and I was interested in making some ice cream, those extra yolks would be worth it, but not today.

Fish Sticks (adapted from Cooking Light)

1/2 c flour
salt/pepper
2 eggs
juice from one lime
1/2 c lager
1 1/2 T dijon mustard
2 t old bay seasoning
2/3 c panko
1/3 c pumpkin seeds toasted (also called pepitas)
1/2 t chipotle pepper
1lb cod - cut into 1" wedges

Preheat oven to 425. Cover sheet pan with aluminum foil. Mix flour, salt, pepper in a shallow dish. Mix eggs, lime, mustard, and lager in another shallow bowl.  Put pumpkin seeds in food processor and pulse until coarse.  Mix pumpkin seed, panko, and pepper in a third shallow dish.

Dip fish into flour.  Shake off excess and then dip in egg mixture.  Finally dip in panko mixture. Preheat sheet pan in oven for 10 minutes. Place fish on sheet pan and bake for 8 minutes, turn fish. Bake an additional 7 minutes or when fish flakes easily when poked with a fork. (Total cook time 15 minutes). Serve with herbed mayonnaise.

Since the oven was on and I had some potatoes that were starting to grow, I decided to make some oven fries.  This recipe is so easy and so delicious - they are not greasy and taste great with Herbes de Provence. But feel free to just do salt if you don't have Herbes de Provence. Since I had the herbed mayonnaise going for the fish, I thought we would go Belgium and have fries to go with the mayonnaise too.

Make them on a silpat for easy cleaning (or I suppose you could use foil)

Then there was the carrot recipe from the New York Times a few weeks ago. These came out quite lovely.  OK Mark (Bittman) I get that you were trying to save me from having to wash another pan but putting the roasting pan over the two burners just didn't really work to well.  The olive oil pooled in the corners and I got a big dark mark in the pan in the outline of the burner. Next time I think I would just break out the cast iron pan and brown them in that.

So overall this was a pretty good meal.