Salt and pepper whiting

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 5 mins

Who really wants to start messing about with batter in the kitchen? If you marinate these little fish (or you can use fish pieces) in fish sauce then toss them in the seasoned flour and shallow-fry, they become beautifully crisp and golden.

75g plain flour

2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

600g skinless small white fish fillets or sliced larger white fish fillets

3 tablespoons fish sauce

light-flavoured oil, for deep-frying

grapefruit salad (see recipe below)

2 limes, cut into wedges

Grapefruit salad

2 red grapefruit, cut into segments

large handful mint leaves

large handful coriander leaves

1 small red onion, cut into thin wedges

2 teaspoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon caster sugar

2 tablespoons lime juice

Combine the flour, chilli flakes and pepper in a bowl. Marinate the fish fillets in the fish sauce for 5 minutes, then drain one by one and roll in the spiced flour. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan over medium–high heat until hot.

Fry the fish in batches for 2 minutes or until golden. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, drain well and place on kitchen paper to drain completely.

Serve with the grapefruit salad and lime wedges.

Combine the grapefruit, mint, coriander and onion in a bowl. Whisk the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice together in another bowl and pour over the salad.

Serves
4

Preparation Time
15 minutes

Cooking Time
5 minutes

Main ingredients
Flour, Fruit

Recipe Type
Dinner, Entertaining, Healthy

Cuisine
Asian

Special Info
Nut free, Egg free, Dairy free

Level of Difficulty
Easy