Whiting Karaage

Posted by petra08 on November 12, 2019 · 4 Comments 

Sometimes when I grew up my mother used to drive down to the harbor to buy fish straight off the fishing boats. She would mainly buy cod or mackerel that was plentiful then. Every now and then fishermen had caught whiting and she would get some. It was always sold with the joke “lucky cat”, as it was sold as cat food. Whiting is firm and sweet in flavor, not fishy at all.

We would eat it pan fried with mash potatoes and lingonberry jam. Swedes are crazy about lingonberry jam and it goes with pretty much any food. With your porridge in the morning, with fish or meat at lunch and dinner. I have had lingonberry martinis and eaten lingonberry pickled herring. The berries are related to cranberries but smaller and slightly different in flavor.

I am getting distracted by the lingon berries, this is all about whiting.

This year it felt like it was summer and warm until one day all of a sudden the days got shorter and there was a nip in the air. One thing I do love about the change of the season is that the light changes as well. We go for a Sunday walk on the beach all year around and no matter what time of the year it is, it is always breathtakingly beautiful.

We all love the beach.

She loves to chase stones and here she pickled one up, paraded it around and the gently laid it on the sand to lie down next to it. I am not quite sure why but it was a great time to snap a photo.

That day the wind picked up and all of the sudden rain clouds blew in at a rapid pace.

We just made it to the car, all stones forgotten.

The other day I asked Darren at Jenkins & Son Fishmongers if he had any Pollock. The season should start about now. I was sad to hear the season didn’t get off to a great start, the Pollock count is declining, it has been over fished to compensate the decline of cod.

One fish that is in season and plentiful, at least locally is whiting.

It is still one of my favorite fish and I bought some the other day.

The whiting was filleted so I simply salted it, pan fried it, squeezed fresh lemon juice over and served it with boiled potatoes and aioli. It was so simple and so good.

A few days later I walked past the fishmongers and they had whiting again. It is caught by day boats, it is local and sustainable, a great fish for any table. I bought it again and thought of a program I watched a while back about chef Tetsuya Wakuda where he made chicken karaage, Japanese deep fried chicken.

I had bought whiting fillets and decided to make whiting karaage.

Whiting Karaage, based on Tetsuya Wakuda’s recipe

preparation time 15 minutes

cooking time 15 minutes

serves 2

Ingredients

• 600 gr or 21 oz whiting fillets
• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 crushed garlic clove
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• a good pinch of sea salt
• a good pinch of ground black pepper
• about 2 dl or 1 cup of sifted flour for dusting, more if needed
• oil for frying

Make sure there are no bones in the fillets but keep the skin on. Place the fillets in a bowl and mix with the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, grated ginger, crushed garlic, mirin, sesame seeds, salt and pepper.

Whiting fillets are quite small so I only marinated them for 10 minutes.

Heat up the oil. Dust the fillets with flour and deep fry them. This will give it a light coating and make the fillets deliciously crunchy. I did double fry them for extra crunch. It didn’t overcook the fish at all, it just made it extra crispy.

I ate them with my hot sauce, rice on the side, a salad and a dipping sauce made with soy sauce, fish sauce, ginger and chilli.

It looked like a lot of fried fish but there was nothing left and I am pretty sure I could have eaten just one more piece.

Whiting is an underrated fish that is absolutely delicious. It is still one of my favorite fish and my cat, sadly long gone, loved it too!

Filed under Allotment/Veg, Fish & Seafood, Garlic, Ginger, Main course, Recipe, Snack, Starter, Whiting · Tagged with fried fish, karaage, whiting kagaage