Battered Red Mullet with Pasta Salad

Name: Fried Battered Red Mullet with Pasta Salad Recipe
Prep time: 1 h 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 2 h
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Red mullet 2; Salt, black pepper to taste; Dried herbs (basil, thyme, oregano) to taste; Egg 1; Dry white wine 50 ml; Ground ginger a pinch (on the tip of a knife); Sweet red paprika a little; Sugar a pinch (if the wine is a bit sour); Flour as needed; Olive oil for frying as needed; Lemon for serving; Pasta (fusilli) 150 g; Water for cooking the pasta 1.5 l; Salt for cooking the pasta 10.5 g (7 g per 1 l of water); Tomato 1; Basil 4-5 sprigs; Green olives 10; Mozzarella (small balls) 150 g; Garlic 2-3 cloves; Olive oil 2-3 tbsp; Salt to taste

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2 h

Fish in batter, or fried in a coating of batter, is a unique way of cooking food, especially fish. I have always liked it. I remember that back in my youth, the student and factory canteens almost always had fried fish on the menu, usually hake or pollock. The tastiest was the one fried in batter. Although fried flounder with plums is just as good, it is something special.

We love red mullet (sultanka) very much. You cannot make fish cakes from red mullet, and you can make fish soup, but it is better to fry it. Fish in batter, or battered fish recipe — fried red mullet is something else!

Unlike a liaison (French, “joining”), a liquid mixture of eggs and milk in which food is dipped before breading, batter is simply a thin dough in which the food is dipped and then fried. Easy to say, simply a thin dough.

Often batter is quite a complex substance made of many ingredients. Its consistency ranges from almost liquid to paste-like. The basic principle of batter is that flour is mixed with egg.

The mixture is then thinned to the desired thickness with milk, cream, or even wine or beer. To give the batter flavor, various spices are added, depending on what is going to be fried.

The question of the batter’s thickness is always the main one. Remember that batter that is too thin will run off the food, and batter that is too thick will not coat it evenly. In any case, food dipped in batter is deep-fried, and after frying it has a beautiful, appetizing crust. Red mullet fried in batter is one of our favorites. We serve it with a delicious Italian pasta appetizer, “alla checca”.

Ingredients

2 servings

Red mullet 2
Salt, black pepper to taste
Dried herbs (basil, thyme, oregano) to taste
Egg 1
Dry white wine 50 ml
Ground ginger a pinch (on the tip of a knife)
Sweet red paprika a little
Sugar a pinch (if the wine is a bit sour)
Flour as needed
Olive oil for frying as needed
Lemon for serving

Pasta (fusilli) 150 g
Water for cooking the pasta 1.5 l
Salt for cooking the pasta 10.5 g (7 g per 1 l of water)
Tomato 1
Basil 4-5 sprigs
Green olives 10
Mozzarella (small balls) 150 g
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Olive oil 2-3 tbsp
Salt to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the red mullet

A charming legend tells how the Turkish sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror (Fatih) (Ottoman: محمد ثانى; Turkish: İkinci Mehmet) besieged Constantinople in the 15th century but, taking pity on the city, sent an envoy to its ruler with an offer to surrender. The envoy was met with a purely “Odessa-style” scene: the ruler was sitting by a fountain while his wife fried fish. To the envoy’s offer to surrender the city the answer was: “Only when the fried fish jump into the fountain.” And suddenly the fish jumped into the fountain. And Constantinople was surrendered to the Turks. History tells us that these fish were sultankas, or, as they are also called, red mullet. The name sultanka is traced to that very fountain in the garden of the ruler of Constantinople. Sultankas are very tasty and almost boneless. Despite their small size, people have fished them since ancient times. They were especially prized in Ancient Rome, and it was believed that the smaller the sultanka, the tastier.

Clean the red mullet: scale it and cut off the fins.
The scales come off very easily, despite the large size, with an ordinary knife under a stream of water. Remove the insides by slitting the belly, and remove the gills.

Marinate the red mullet: salt and pepper them and sprinkle (especially inside) with dried herbs: basil, thyme, oregano. A Mediterranean herb mix works very well. Leave the fish in the refrigerator for an hour so they absorb the spices. It is a kind of dry marinade.

“Alla checca” pasta salad

The salad is made while the red mullet marinates.

Cook the fusilli until done in 1.5 l of boiling water with 10.5 g of salt (7 g per 1 l of water). Drain the cooked pasta in a colander and let the water run off. Put it on a large plate and cool to room temperature. I recommend covering it with a paper napkin so the pasta does not dry out.
Cut the salad ingredients: halve the green olives, cut the mozzarella balls into four pieces, pull all the leaves off the basil, and dice the tomato.
In a deep bowl, combine the cooled pasta, tomato, mozzarella, basil and green olives. Add salt and mix.

Dress the salad: chop the garlic and mix it with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil. Pour the dressing over the pasta salad, stir, and put it in the refrigerator so that all the ingredients absorb the dressing.

Batter and frying

Make the batter: crack the egg into a deep small bowl, add salt, ground ginger (a pinch) and a little sweet red paprika. Beat with a fork until smooth. Pour in the dry white wine and mix. If the wine is a bit sour, you can add a tiny pinch of sugar.
Next comes the most important moment: adding the flour. Add the flour a little at a time and stir, because the amount of flour determines how thick the batter is. If lumps form, don’t be upset. In principle, that is how it should be. For fish I recommend a batter as thick as very thick sour cream, one that runs slowly off the spoon. Ideally, try to strain the batter, if it passes through the sieve.
Heat olive oil in a frying pan. You may need more of it: fish in batter should be partly submerged in the oil while frying, otherwise the batter will spread. Dip the red mullet one at a time in the batter, let the excess drip off and put them in the hot pan.
Fry the red mullet until golden: reduce the heat to below medium and fry for 9-10 minutes on each side. Remember: the fish must be fully cooked through!
If you are not quite sure, you can fry the battered red mullet over high heat for 1-1.5 minutes on each side so that the batter “sets”, then reduce the heat and fry the fish, turning them, until fully cooked. That way the fish will not burn.
Batter absorbs fat actively, so the fish may seem very greasy. In that case, simply put the finished fish on a paper napkin; the fat will be absorbed and the red mullet fried in batter will be just to your taste.

Serving

Put the “alla checca” salad on a large plate and the fish on top. I recommend squeezing lemon juice over it: any fish fried in batter goes beautifully with lemon.

Calories and macros

920 kcal

Serving ≈ 450 g

Protein38 g17% of kcal
Fat54 g54% of kcal
Carbs65 g29% of kcal

100 g204 kcalProtein 8.4 gFat 12.1 gCarbs 14.5 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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Battered Red Mullet with Pasta Salad

Ingredients

For the fish and batter

For the “alla checca” salad