Panko Fried Hake with Spinach Avocado Salad

Thursday was fish share night and we got a big, headless, gutted hake. There was a lot of meat on this one. My husband once again, kindly filleted it. The fish yielded six large servings. I cut the excess into fillets, oiled them, put them into zip-top bags and stored them in the freezer for later use. I also made a lovely fish stock from the bones, fins and other fish parts and vegetable trimmings we had storing in the freezer.

With the remaining two hake servings, I made lovely panko fried fillets to go with a salad of spinach, avocado and sun-dried tomatoes. It was a luscious little contradiction of a meal. I’m categorizing this under “Regional Cuisine” despite the use of avocado and panko, because fried fish with any type of breading is as ubiquitous as clam chowder on the New England Coastline.

Panko Fried Hake – Serves 2

2 fillets of hake
1 egg
1 T water
1 1/2 C panko crumbs *
1 t salt
oil to cover the bottom of pot, 1 inch deep

Heat oil to 360 degrees in a heavy pot if on stove top. Or, if you’re all fancy-pants and have a fryer, go that route. It’s safer than having a big pot of scalding oil on the stove. I use my trusty cast iron pot because it seems less likely to spontaneously flip off of the stove than a stainless steel stockpot. If you’re using a pot, be sure to use a thermometer and adjust the burner, making sure not to let the temperature get below 300, under which the breading will absorb too much oil.

Beat egg with water in a large bowl.

Mix panko crumbs with salt in a large, deep dish.

Dry the fish pieces with a paper towel. Dip fillet in the egg mixture and allow all excess egg to drip off before dredging in panko crumbs. Here’s my trick with frying breaded things – you want the dry stuff (breading) to soak up the wet stuff (egg, milk or batter) where they meet on the surface of whatever you’re cooking. This helps the breading stick and not peel off as it fries. Press the crumbs into the fish and let it soak in a for about 10 seconds until you feel a little moisture on your hand. Flip it over and do the same. Once it’s breaded, try not to move it around too much. Repeat with the second fillet.

Gently slide the fillets into the hot oil. Keep an eye on the thermometer. Cook on one side for 4 minutes. Using tongs, flip and cook another 4 minutes.

Remove fish from oil and drain on paper towels.

Spinach Avocado Salad - serves 2

2 C baby spinach
1 T olive oil
1 T white wine vinegar
2 T sun-dried tomatoes, diced *
1 avocado, peeled and sliced *

Toss spinach with oil, vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes. Divide in half and plate. Top with avocados.

* A note on ingredient origin: The avocados were obviously not local, but they were organic. So at least it fit some of my criteria. The panko crumbs were purchased in bulk from a local natural food store. Minimally processed (or at least fewer than 5 ingredients), but the label only said that name of the store, and not it’s origin. That bugs me, but what bugs me more is that I didn’t ask. Not a huge deal. The sun-dried tomatoes were also minimally processed and imported from Italy by a local distributor as was the olive oil and the canola oil used for frying supposedly comes from US and Canada. Can’t win ‘em all, but I do try to keep things at least 90% local, organic or minimally processed. Everything else used in this meal (and all posts) are made within 200 miles unless otherwise noted in a gripe section like this one.