Lunch Today: Fish Fry

Fish Fries always seem so sentimental. My family never traditionally had a Friday fish fry like some families I know did. BUT I did work for a restaurant that had a special Friday menu with a Friday fish fry. That was one of my favorite parts about working there on a Friday night-at the end of the long night working I could drive home and eat some Lake Perch with potato pancakes in the parking lot of the church across the street.

So today for lunch I made Lake Perch with cheesy skin-on mashed potatoes (just like the mashed potato casserole the restaurant/inn would serve) and a mini salad.


The inn and my family (when we did the recipe) would make a beer-battered perch, but since I can't get that on my own quite yet, I found another recipe that worked out just great.

Beer Batter Recipe:
1egg
1 cup warm stale beer
1 1/8 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour
1tsp salt
¾ tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
fish filets
cooking oil
1. Mix all ingredients except fish.
2. Wash and pat dry fish with paper towel
3. Heat 2 inches of cooking oil in pan over moderate high heat.
4. Dip fish pieces in batter, fry in oil, turning as necessary.

The "non-alcoholic" recipe:
1 tbsp. vinegar
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. milk
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Fish fillets
And the directions are the same.