Fish Sticks
One of my favourite meals as a kid was fish sticks and tater tots. I continued to eat the meal into adulthood, but the super processed frozen fish kinda weirds me out these days. Lately, I’ve been reading about the health benefits of fish (In a book called “Coffee is Bad Good for You”. I’d highly recommend it) and so when I saw a fish stick recipe pop up in my google reader, I thought I’d give it a try. I wanted my fish sticks to be healthy – baked, not fried, yet crispy all around. I also wanted to get some whole grains in the mix, so I made my own breadcrumb mixture using plain regular breadcrumbs, Wasa crackers, and a collection of herbs and spices. (See my inspiration - A Cozy Kitchen‘s take on fish sticks and Eating Well‘s fish stick recipe).
Here’s what you need:
- 400g white fish
- 4 whole wheat Wasa crackers
- 1/2 cup plain white breadcrumbs
- a good shake of each of the following
- garlic powder
- shallots
- italian mix seasoning
- paprika
- salt
- pepper
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup flour
How you do it:
- Preheat your oven to 220C (425F).
- Make breadcrumb mix. Put breadcrumbs, Wasa crackers, and seasoning (feel free to throw in what you fancy) into your food processor. Pulse several times until you get the consistency you want (I like my breadcrumbs to have a bit of heft).
- Set up 3 small bowls: put the flour in one, the eggs (beaten) in the next, and the breadcrumbs in the third. Prepare a pan with a wire rack and make sure to give it a good coating with cooking spray. (Using the wire rack means your fish sticks don’t have mushy bottoms and a healthy dose of cooking spray means you don’t lose half the breading getting them off.)
- Cut your fish into 3 inch sticks. (It helps to get clean cuts if your fish is just a little frozen.)
- Coat your sticks first with the flour, then with the egg, then with the crumbs and place on pan. (What I learned from this experience – you can use your hands to do the flour, but a utensil is best for the egg, and the old “shake and bake” method is best for the crumbs. Otherwise the crumbs come off on your fingers- especially if you’ve got egg on them, and then your fish sticks have bald spots. It’s better to use the fork to transfer the egg coated stick to the crumbs and then shake the bowl a bit to cover the stick, flip it over and do the other side, then gingerly transfer the stick to the pan.
- Once all the sticks are in the pan, give them a good coating of cooking spray (this will help them to get all brown and crispy) and stick them in the oven for 10 minutes. Enjoy =)
Because you're dealing with raw fish, it's best to get organised before you start battering. That limits the contamination and clean up zone.
Because I was serving this to guests and I was running late I didn’t get to take a done picture (new blogger’s mistake), but I assure they were crispy, lovely brown, and super tasty. And I promise, next time I’ll snap a picture.
Do you have a favourite childhood food that you’d love to recreate (or have recreated)? Leave me a comment to share what it is =)
You have really worked to get a healthy fish stick recipe. I think it really surpasses the original.
Thanks so much. It was totally worth the effort too =)
I’m “stealing” this recipe!
steal away =)
This is definitely going to be tried! We’ve been talking about homemade fish sticks for a while now, but hadn’t seen a recipe we were excited about trying. Thanks!