Week 10 - Homemade Fish Sticks and Spicy Tartar Sauce

I used to love fish sticks as a kid. I don't know why I say "used to" cause I still love fish sticks. After deliberating on an easy yet tasty small meal this week, I settled on this.

These were surprisingly easy to make. First was the selection of a fresh white fish. There's no specific fish that's better than the other, but I used Cod because the others (trout, halibut) were too thin. This fish was about a half inch thick throughout the fillet.

((I want to apologize ahead of time for any randomness in this blog. I'm eating the fish sticks now and am getting very distra...))

Starting off was the slicing of the fish, I just cut them into roughly 3 inch sticks cause that's what I'm used to buying. Roll the sticks in flour, dip in egg, roll in crumb mix.

For my mix I decided to go with a blend of corn meal, garlic powder, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and  and since I don't have any Panko mix, I crushed up some veggie chips and used that as well to give it some crunch. ((Oh man...I ate all the fish sticks...sad))

I bought some tartar sauce when I got my fish just in case the homemade tartar sauce flopped. I didn't even need to think about opening it! Using mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, sriracha sauce (rooster sauce), lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley I mixed up a very spicy-sour tartar sauce. If this stuff didn't need to be refrigerated, I would literally carry it around in my pocket just in case I ever ran into a fish on the street that I wanted to eat.

Homemade Fish Sticks and Spicy Tartar Sauce
adapted from www.acozykitchen.com
Fish Sticks:
4 thick filets of a white fish (cod, catfish, trout, halibut, tilapia...)
all purpose flour
2 eggs
corn meal
garlic powder
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
Panko mix or other crunchy frying mix
vegetable oil

Wash and dry the fish. Slice into 3-4 inch strips that are similar to very thick french fries. In a medium shallow dish, place half cup flour. In a small bowl, beat the two eggs. In a medium plate, combine corn meal, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and panko mix. Roll the sticks in flour and pat off any excess. Dip the fish in the egg and roll in the frying mix. Fry all the battered fish sticks in the vegetable oil for a couple minutes per side.

Spicy-Sour Tartar Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Sriracha
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Although this is probably not a "true" tartar sauce, it tastes close enough to it without the little crunchy bits in it. Just mix everything together and you're good to go.